Leslie Is Different Lyrics - Singles - Small Fred

The neighbor up the road brought the message 

Joe and May never had a phone 

Five children grown and gone to college 

Now they lived out on Pewaukee Lake alone 

And the nurse at the big Milwaukee hospital 

Said "We've got a baby here with no eyes 

It's retarded, it's got cerebral palsy 

Six months old living only to die 

And we remembered the tiny Englishwoman 

Used to hire out as a nurse-governess 

May Lemke, will you take this broken child off our hands?" 

And God loves a fool 'cause she said yes. She said: 

CHORUS: 

Leslie is different 

Like everyone in the world 

He's kind of awkward, he's kind of fragile 

Kind of graceful, kind of tough 

He's kind of slow, he's kind of clever 

He's just Leslie and that's enough. 

He just lay there helpless and silent 

Not a tear, not a smile, not a word 

But they held him and rocked him and sang him to sleep 

And talked to him as if he really heard 

And he grew with the sun and affection 

Though his body was spindly and small 

And a hundred times they stood him with his hands upon the fence 

And a hundred times watched him fall 

And their daughters warned it was useless 

They said, "Mama, that boy will break your heart." 

She said, "Love never comes easy 

And miracles mostly come hard." She said: 

CHORUS 

May used to play the piano 

And sing the old songs from the war 

There was always music on the radio 

And the records she bought at the store 

And sometimes they swore he was listening 

Though of course there was no way to know 

Maybe he was flying in his own blue sky 

Where no one else would ever go 

Maybe he was lost in a forest 

Where demons and woodspirits dwell 

But for sixteen years he had never spoke a word 

Never taken one step for himself. But they said: 

CHORUS 

Along about three in the morning 

A ripple of music broke the night 

Joe's fallen asleep at the TV again 

May reached over to turn on the light 

But the music kept getting louder 

And the TV was quiet and cold 

Leslie was playing the piano 

And his fingers were agile and bold 

A Tchaikovsky piano concerto 

Like water breaking over a dam 

A river of ecstasy flowed through his hands 

And each note cried out, "I am." Because 

CHORUS