The First Time

A recent issue of our local newspaper carried a photo with the following caption.
"On his second visit this summer to the rose garden at Hartford's Elizabeth Park, Wednesday, R* plays a recorder." (Hartford Courant print edition, 8/14/08)

"The world famous rose garden is the oldest municipally operated rose garden in the country. It is a two and a half acre garden which has about 800 varieties of roses that amount to 15,000 plants. Rambling roses cover arched walkways in the garden and the beds are filled with roses of every shape and color. Along the border, fences of climbing and shrub roses provide a colorful background for the bedding plants." (http://www.elizabethpark.org/)

There was no reportage of his initial trip, possibly because nothing out of the ordinary occurred.

Perhaps the first time -
Adrift without a purpose -
He smelled the roses.