An Invitation to a Poem: Tea With a Madman

I am not sure if a person can be invited to a poem,

but last night as I lay in that place between sleep and awareness,

in the moments that Queen Mab visited me,

I was.

I was in a library and I found a book called:

An Invitation to a Poem: Tea with a Madman,

opening it,

I found that I was,

in fact,

a character within the tale and that all around me the library was gone,

instead,

I was within the grounds of a stately house,

though I could not tell you why I was there,

a lady told me that tea was this way,

displaying to me a signpost with several arrows pointing in all directions,

none of which told me which way tea was.

When I questioned her on this,

she simply said

“Sit down, wherever tea is, you will be.”

In an instant,

tea was before me and I drank and ate my fill.

Many joined me and – oh – we talked,

but as we lost the sun,

I finally told them that the true reason for my visit;

that a book had invited me to a poem which I could only assume was called;

Tea with a Madman.

“Oh, I am sorry,”

the lady said

“it must have been miss delivered,

that invitation was for me,

welcome to your poem,

would you like some more tea?”