vignette

a novel we planned
great and grand
an epic to span
the ages
but we got lost
in the opening pages
disagreed about
the tenses
looked at the characters
through different lenses
as though Hemingway
were writing Mrs. Dalloway
it didn't mesh
and so you couldn't stay
no novel then, a vignette
we wrote brief and fleeting
hastily sketched
and worth deleting
and I regret the lost words
still writing and reading
our chapters unwritten
from an outline
scribbled on the back
of a napkin
in a cafe
that lovely day
when plot was laid
and I unmade