Stolen Lotus Blossom

I was a teenager back then
had almost finished high school
when I attended the Lotus Blossom Festival
with a plan of bringing a flower home

by sneaking in with a hacksaw
casually walking past security
and when no one was looking, taking
the bloom along with its watery roots,

placing it in a plastic bag

hurrying home and planting it

in a pool prepared for its

arrival where it thrived.

Later I offered tubers for sale

as I built my own nursery business

becoming an expert in water flowers

never regretting the theft so many years ago.

Maybe I was guided by the hand of god

when I took that blossom because

last weekend the park contacted me

to replant the lotus in a refurbished home. 

The other plants had been killed off 

with disease and dirty water,

now my conscience is clear

and the plants are thriving

because of a theft I committed
several years before. 

(Story retold in first person
from article in newspaper.)