"I'm a woman. I support them. I'm bisexual. I support them. I'm a feminist. I support them. I endure regular abuse for being trans. I support them. I am called a "poof" by the unenlightened. I support them. My name is Lesley, and I'm a woman that is to say that I am human, just like you, and you like me." A meditation on the passing of time, a declaration that life, love and poetry are defined by time, are all about time and timing. Here are love poems, life poems, elegies, aubades, odes, existential solitude poems, prose poems, joyous poems of fleeting human pleasures, poems compassionate, sanguine and witty, poems delicate with vulnerability, urgent poems on survival over time. * These are powerful, moving and accomplished poems that speak to all humanity, written by a certain woman documenting her uncertain becomings over time. Whatever the certainties of those enforcing it or of those of us willingly or unwillingly defined by it, the category 'woman' has always been uncertain. 'One is not born a woman', Simone de Beauvoir observes, 'one becomes one'. But what is it to be deeply certain of an urgent calling to womanhood all of one's life yet violently excluded from such a becoming? What is it to win through?

One night Stephen Barlow invites one of his young pupils home for additional tutoring. There is an evident bond between them; his is one of regard, and hers is one of admiration. But Stephen's wife, Grace, misreads the bond, and persuades herself that the two are in love. The sudden prospect of losing her husband's love to a young girl leads her to a cruel attack upon the girl, who is mortally embarrassed and conscience stricken. She runs away into the night. Stephen goes after her, but is not able to find her. Days pass, and there is no sign of her. The police drag the river and search every corner. Stephen is openly suspected of having seduced and murdered the girl.8 women, 2 men