Windy Escapade

Mid-April winds are frisky
            gusty
mayhaps mischievous
lifting items
twirling them through air
tumbling them along the ground
shifting moods and ideas
clearing old cobwebs
turning over old leaves
bringing in new life 

Amid the frolicsome turbulence
the Widow Wyile runs
some simple errands
fetches dairy products
and pineapple from the store
where a worker informs her
there are no baskets
because they get taken 

Thereafter she wheels out
the small shopping cart
with a few groceries
and receipt tucked among them
when >>>whiiiiiffft ! ! ! ! !
the ribbon of paper
            is borne aloft
                        and merrily
                                    flits      a >>> WAY! 

Leaving the cart
by the side of her car
she swiftly gives chase
drawn onward
                        row after         row
                        of parking   places
reaching   o u t   the   t o e   of   her   shoe
only to be taunted      f u r t h e r
along  until
            just as success seems unlikely
her foot secures
                        one      edge   at last

Triumphant and laughing
she returns to her automobile
to find
            her shopping cart
va nix ed 

Perplexity and disbelief
stop her for a scant moment
before propelling her quizzical brow
and questing eyes and feet
to stride about
ruffled and expostulating
incredulous
astonished
but not looking far
enough 

After a bit
an oncoming driver
slows and rolls dow
            n her window:
            “Are you lOOking
               for your shopping cart?
            She’s hit a car
                down by the bank
            She had quite
            the >>>speed to her…”

Indeed…
            look at that
            there is a slope 

Aided by the spritely wind
the cart escaped
   c a r e e n e d
from one lot to the next
crossing lanes with velocity
in gravity’s embrace
            imagine checkered flags
            frantically waving
cart’s scarf flapping
goggles askew
can you picture the outlandish scene?
            then
          >>bam<<
stopped by a forceful
encounter with a car bumper
to the considerable consternation
of its perturbed owner
who admonished the Widow Wyile
to mind her cart in future
rather than her flighty receipt
what could she have been thinking
or did she think at all? 

This remarkable incident
dear Readers
of a cart racing off
in one gleeful
one must suppose
              go
seems an instructive surprise
showing how little it takes
how quick as a gust
one or all may
be launched
from the ho hum
hum drum sum
of unremarkable
commonplaces
into formidable
cosmological possibility
quite simply so:
given volition
     plus
locomotion
springwind
enkindles
notions of
alterration