London/Story

Lekey S. Leidecker

 

a boy arrives in walthamstow

in the mid-2000s. plays video games.

this is a Tibetan story.

the boy won’t enter charity shops.

sometimes, the boy is lonely.

the boy comes from far away

and moves toward an uncertain future.

this is perhaps the most

Tibetan story

there is

a boy. there is a family.

there is tobacco,

the hard contour of unkindness.

there are years of difficult

relationships and phone calls. first

jobs, first disappointments.

this is a Tibetan story.

 

in the hardest times life can feel

like it’s rootless

but watch trees as the tube

emerges from the ground

see how they filter the light

When the impossible arrives

Lekey S. Leidecker

 

as we enter the impossible moment

think of your loved ones

and what you will do

to protect them. soon,

things will deviate

far from the rhythms

of daily life. you might

leave a homeland

or flee into unknown danger.

when the impossible arrives

at your once-secure doorstep,

it will be time to act. there will

be no more time for theory.

prepare now. spend hours

memorizing your lover’s breath.

wear all your most beautiful things.

plant flowers. learn the scent of rain.

relearn how to run a mile.

be thankful for stillness, for

gentleness, for boredom.

we will need them all.

tuck away

your precious and breakable.

know this bone-deep:

when the impossible moment

comes, do whatever you must

to see the next. gather your beloveds, say a prayer,

and run.

 

Lekey S. Leidecker is a Tibetan writer born and raised in Kentucky. Her family is from Pemako. She is preoccupied with Tibetan life, identities, time, and land. She divides her time between New York and London and just finished her first chapbook.