The world feels out of synch today.
It folds in upon itself, and turns its back,
as I search in vain for brown shoelaces.

It offers me white or black, and flat –
these for training shoes, I suppose.
But I want cable, and quality, waxed,
for country brogues.

I search the town
until weariness sends me home,
shamed by the unreasonableness
of my flowery wants.

The world is not in the mood for me today,
as I am not receptive to the abundance
of its offhanded alternatives.

I shall order some from Ebay, instead.
Free delivery from the digital void,
mid-wifed by a battered van,
a data-matrixed package
dropped without ceremony
through the letterbox.
No longer the treasure
of a need met
by a world with soul.