The flowers bloom inside us.
How their reds, pinks, oranges,
whites, golds and greens
vibrate happiness.

My husband, daughter and I
are tripping at a little known place
in Puerta Vallarta with
natural cascading rock pools.
While they jump off
a slate-colored stone into water below,
I paddle in a less populated pool.
I am suffused.

Later,
while we eat fresh fish and vegetables,
I notice we’ve become flower,
mountain, water and rock.
We ask the waiter why this paradise
isn’t in a guidebook.
Paradise, he explains, doesn’t belong in a book,
it has to be found.

© by Jean Colonomos.
Used with the author’s permission.