Fatherland

Out of nothing
except the night light and
interrupted dreams
his hands
made shadow butterflies
and rabbits
a prancing horse
and a fast turtle
who laughed all the way
to the finish line
he turned the fable upside
down, he turned our lives
inside out
absent in the day
bursting home at night
we were sleepy eyed and
growing halfway drunk
on his bourbon hello
and his laugh
we abandoned slumber
for the midnight
tales told in
the magical midnight
kingdom
we called
fatherland

Leslie Dianne is a playwright, poet, novelist, screenwriter and performer whose work has been acclaimed internationally at the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy, The Teatro Lirico in Milan, Italy and at La Mama, ETC in NYC. Her stage plays have been produced in NYC at The American Theater of Actors, The Raw Space, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and The Lamb's Theater, and at Theater Festivals in Texas and Indiana. She holds a BA in French Literature from CUNY and her writing appears in The Wild Word, Sparks of Calliope, The Elevation Review, Quaranzine, The Dillydoun Review, Line Rider Press, Flashes and elsewhere. Her writing was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net.