Tea in the Sky?

     We've had a great deal of rain this week in the Orlando area, and that condition always makes me feel very English and encourages my (English and Irish) addiction to cups of tea.  For the enjoyment of other people who also love a cuppa, here's a poem that I wrote after visiting Salisbury cathedral with my husband, who held an umbrella over my head while I looked at the cathedral from the garden of the Rose and Crown (where we'd had tea, of course).  The title is a pun, since the expression "high tea" is what we Americans call "supper," but in the poem it refers to having tea in the sky -- on the capstone of the spire.  (For those who haven't visited English cathedral cities: the area immediately around the cathedral is usually called a "close.")

High Tea

I had my tea
in Salisbury Close
beside a stream,
behind the Rose

Among four ducks,
some passing bees,
a silver rain
and tender breeze.

But next time I
would like to try
and have my tea
beside the sky.

I'll climb the stout
cathedral wall
where rooks will help me
not to fall.

They'll lead me up
from king to saint
and keep my mind
from feeling faint.

Atop the roof
I'll pause a bit,
then ask the swifts
to finish it --

To lead me higher,
        higher,
             higher,
                up the tower
                     to the spire.

Beneath a cloud
I'll rest my feet
at Capstone Inn
on Steeple Street.

The swallow hosts
will fill my cup
and talk to me
of Down and Up.