Poetry

Before It's All Over Between Us

Gary Leising


If wish you could come closer,

could hear my whispers, my dreams—

you’ve told us all your life you wanted

to be an architect but couldn’t afford school,

so now let me tell you mine,

my wish not to be a mother,

not to make comfort food every day all day,

my dream, so secret I told no one—

it wasn’t the diner job I undertook

when you complained about the bills

before the kids, and then after they left home

I kept working around the house,

and weren’t your shirts all ironed,

your pants perfectly creased? So now, my dear,

my dream—

you love me, right? Will help me fulfill it?

But, oh, you can’t respond, can’t hear me

for all the dirt and coffin walls between us.

 

About the Author 

Gary Leising is the author of the book The Alp at the End of My Street from Brick Road Poetry Press (2014). He has also published three poetry chapbooks: The Girl with the JAKE Tattoo (Two of Cups Press, 2015), Temple of Bones (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and Fastened to a Dying Animal (Pudding House, 2010). He lives in Clinton, New York, with his wife and two sons, where he teaches creative writing and poetry as a professor of English.

vector icon of building

Corporate Education

Learn how we can help your organization meet its professional development goals and corporate training needs.

Learn More

vector icon of building

Donate to UCLA Extension

Support our many efforts to reach communities in need.

Innovation Programs

Student Scholarships

Lifelong Learning

See More