Thank you to all the editors at Our Poetry Archive (OPA) for publishing my three poems today!

https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com/2018/12/linda-imbler.html

COST

Leaving you

should be so easy.

Your cold ways

border on abuse,

but it isn’t,

quite.

Still,

I've paid with heart and soul,

squandered emotional and spiritual currency

for your benefit.

An investment

yielding little return.

It should be so easy,

but I'll spend some more time trying to decide.

ONCE I KNEW

Once I knew,

no other

could please me.

Except him.

I grew happy.

Knowing

no other would

ever make my

world turn as it should.

TEA AND BUTTER ON TAFT

The two smiling ladies exit the car and walk toward the door.

One clad in lilac and phlox, the eldest of her clan.

The other, the eldest of no one,

dressed in whatever color suits the day.

The small, furry gray haired elder greets them; he stretches,

extends his right leg forward and bows;

a genuflection; his recognition, as if to say I know you,

you are half of the congregation.

Inside, stands the lovely priestess,

wearing the jeweled hands and the glittering smile.

She speaks of art, love, friendship, all spiritual things,

she speaks of the creation of lovely adornments

to match the beauty of the world.

And she has the evidence to prove their worth.

There also stands the bishop.

This is his church and we welcome what is worshipped here.

There are rituals within this sanctuary,

seemingly unexceptional to any observers, but crucial to the group.

It's as if we are performing our own kind of mass

and we do it with tea and butter.

These meetings are meant for the sharing and acceptance

of creeds that lie deep within our souls,

our way of confession.

Who knew that those two Eucharistic elements

could bring forth such intimate conversation?

There's sometimes pizzelles and pickles,

usually pictures and poems,

but always tea and butter

to represent the truest meaning of friendship

within the safe walls that surround this altar.