I’d been to OA a dozen years earlier
and dismissed it, a babbling crowd
chanting nonsense, acting silly…
or so it seemed. Oh, how I wish I’d stayed.

I decided to try again one mid-December,
eight days before Christmas,
but who starts a food program
with Christmas, New Years
and London on the calendar’s page?

Returning from London it took two weeks
to clear up the time on my datebook,
but I was going to get to the meeting.
Snow, ice…school closures, cancellations…
I drove across town s.l.o.w.l.y.
But nobody else was there,
for they knew each other, had agreed.

My third first meeting the next week
but to nonsense my first impression.
I had come home, had found my folk
and it truly was affirmed…
the third time was the charm
and changed my life
so I’ll never leave.

There will not be a fourth first meeting.