Thwarted

The Plan was
Perfect.

First, a Walk
in The Enchanted
Forest.
Then, a Visit
to an Artfully
Notorious Nursery.
With the Third and
Final Act a
Table for Two
at a Coffeeshop
that might,
with a twist of
The Imagination,
be a portal to
The Mystery.

But The Plan
vanished in
a puff of
exhaust smoke
when the Forest
was overrun
with carloads of
overrunners.

Thwarted!

The Nursery seemed
suddenly bereft of its
beguilements
until I
remembered:

A Wise One
said:
“If The Plan
comes to What Is
Naught,
embrace
What Is.”

I assented,
and The Mystery
returned my
Embrace.

Every green and
budded thing,
every vine and branch,
in that
Notorious Nursery,
pulled me in
close, and
whispered Secrets,
as if we were
Lovers.

Even stacks
of cardboard flats
seemed artfully
arranged by
Michelangelo.

When we
departed with
great gratitude,

and travelled
on to the
Coffeeshop of
Mystery,

we were already
swimming in it.

(Photo by Annie Spratt; UnSplash)