Leslie Is Different

<br>The neighbor up the road brought the message<br>Joe and May never had a phone<br>Five children grown and gone to college<br>Now they lived out on Pewaukee Lake alone<br>And the nurse at the big Milwaukee hospital<br>Said "We`ve got a baby here with no eyes<br>It`s retarded, it`s got cerebral palsy<br>Six months old living only to die<br>And we remembered the tiny Englishwoman<br>Used to hire out as a nurse-governess<br>May Lemke, will you take this broken child off our hands?"<br>And God loves a fool `cause she said yes. She said:<br>CHORUS:<br>Leslie is different<br>Like everyone in the world<br>He`s kind of awkward, he`s kind of fragile<br>Kind of graceful, kind of tough<br>He`s kind of slow, he`s kind of clever<br>He`s just Leslie and that`s enough.<br>He just lay there helpless and silent<br>Not a tear, not a smile, not a word<br>But they held him and rocked him and sang him to sleep<br>And talked to him as if he really heard<br>And he grew with the sun and affection<br>Though his body was spindly and small<br>And a hundred times they stood him with his hands upon the fence<br>And a hundred times watched him fall<br>And their daughters warned it was useless<br>They said, "Mama, that boy will break your heart."<br>She said, "Love never comes easy<br>And miracles mostly come hard." She said:<br>CHORUS<br>May used to play the piano<br>And sing the old songs from the war<br>There was always music on the radio<br>And the records she bought at the store<br>And sometimes they swore he was listening<br>Though of course there was no way to know<br>Maybe he was flying in his own blue sky<br>Where no one else would ever go<br>Maybe he was lost in a forest<br>Where demons and woodspirits dwell<br>But for sixteen years he had never spoke a word<br>Never taken one step for himself. But they said:<br>CHORUS<br>Along about three in the morning<br>A ripple of music broke the night<br>Joe`s fallen asleep at the TV again<br>May reached over to turn on the light<br>But the music kept getting louder<br>And the TV was quiet and cold<br>Leslie was playing the piano<br>And his fingers were agile and bold<br>A Tchaikovsky piano concerto<br>Like water breaking over a dam<br>A river of ecstasy flowed through his hands<br>And each note cried out, "I am." Because<br>CHORUS