Energy to clean the house

A friend told me once,"If you want to clean your house,invite people over, and the job gets done."
Well, Thursday,I'm having my writing friends over. We meet once a month to work on our writing. This past month we were to try our hand at "micro-fiction"-a complete story in 300 words.
So today I'll be busy cleaning and getting ready for my dear friends. I bought some new potpourri (thanks Tania for reminding me) and got out my fall decorations. I even went outside and cut branches from my River birch tree to place around my chandelier...looks cool.
I treasure these two women. B and I have been meeting for 6-7 years,interrupted only by her battle with leukemia. This December will be her 5th anniversary of her umbilical stemcell bone marrow transplant. We are going to party!
That year of her early battle I wrote almost entirely about her and me. I couldn't write about anything else. I took it everywhere,even to Poetry Camp at The Clearing, in Ellison Bay,Wisc. I have enough poems to make a chapbook..but I don't think I will. Last year I showed her some of my poems and we had a good cry...that's what friends do.
Here's one early poem:

The Booth In The Corner

She calls,
so soon after her chemo,
she wants to meet to write.

At the restaurant I see her
in our usual booth,
waiting.
My lips purse inward
as I see her frail form
sitting there shuffling papers,
her head hidden by a red bandana,
her delicate face pale.
She sees me, and we know.

I relax my lips and exhale
the breath I'm holding,
gather my notebooks
closer to my chest.

"Let's write,"she says.

I sit unable to write,
everything seems superficial,
so unimportant,but the love,
and I cannot write about it,
her across from me.

As I tap my pen,
she takes my hand
presses it between hers.

"Write," she says,
tears streaming down her face,
and I do.

I never revised this poem..it just is.
The micro-fiction story I wrote for her and M's critique is titled:
BARBED WIRE AND BLACK POLISH

I'll let you know if they liked it.