Thank you so much to Editor Dagmara K. for publishing my poem "Say Cheese" today in Spillwords.


http://spillwords.com/say-cheese/

Say Cheese

written by: Linda Imbler

“Say Cheese!” my best friend told me,
in that quirky way she would whisper,
right before the photographer snapped the eighth grade class picture.
Before the prints could be returned, her family abruptly moved out-of-state.

I hope she has had the most hair-raising opportunities,
such grand hair-raising experiences to match those we survived
during most of that school year.

But more than that,
I wish for her to have had many beautiful, joyful ‘say cheese' moments
throughout all her seasons and in the many lands
to which she wished to travel;
on a beach covered by sand up to her waist as her skin turned pink,
wearing snow shoes and thick parkas while walk gliding across an ice glacier
as her nose dripped,
atop a camel before Giza
feeling as if she would be bowlegged for eternity
after the dismount,
wedding day cake cutting,
post birth photos as a new mom,
family reunions,
graduations, both hers and those of family and friends,

her eighth grade heart still intact.