Choices in Frontier Towns
  
 Amid tumbleweeds and clapboard buildings,
 standing upon dirt roads or a sawn timber dais,
 snake oil men, extolling their potions,
 their curing wares depleted by end of day.
 Risky whiskey,
 the magic elixir 
 of 19th-century self-proclaimed wizards.
 Was it truly hope in a bottle
 or just sanctioned intoxication?
 The Old West version of paper or plastic.
  
  
  
 Changelings
 (An Etheree Poem)
  
 Cauls 
 on face;
 the stand-ins
 enter our world,
 are revealed as odd.
 We know them as changelings,
 left by ones of the old world
 and recognized by strange facade.
 Impersonators that infiltrate.
 False kings taking up counterfeit scepters.
  
  
  
 Green Roses
  
 Help me remember
 any truths beyond the lies.
 Do you know who you are?
 And, in return, say what you know of me.
 I stand before you with hands extended.
 You do this also,
 when it suits what you’ll render.
 Your piano man fingers,
 your furrowed face,
 you weave my pain into holy beads.
  
 Help me remember
 any previously painted portraits
 before the newly applied paint coat.
 Is peace better than being right?
 I learned omens and portents from you,
 so I see where this new ripple will carry us,
 and I ask you:
 Would you still grow for me
 a most beautiful garden
 if there were no more flowers? 

Linda Imbler’s poetry collections include three self-published works, “Big Questions, Little Sleep,”  “Lost and Found,” and “Red Is The Sunrise.”  Soma Publishing has published her three e-book collections, “The Sea’s Secret Song,” “Pairings,” a hybrid of short fiction and poetry, and “That Fifth Element.”  Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.