The People Who Keep to the Paths
by Theodora Goss

There are people in Kensington Gardens
who keep to the paths, walking
straight, one foot in front of the other,
like soldiers, upright, respectable.
They are all, I am certain, very good people.
I, on the other hand, struck out
across the field, under the linden trees,
not from any sense of rebellion
or non-conformity, no, simply
to feel the grass about my ankles
and smell, falling from the leafy canopy
above, like a scented rain, like a benediction,
a storm of linen flowers.

(The image is Under the Linden by Anton Hansch.)