Remember when you told me
to write about the mangroves
and I didn’t and instead
I wrote about not writing about the mangroves
and in it I just used the word mangroves a lot?

I just looked at that piece yesterday.
Don’t know why it crossed my path.
It might be
that it shared a word with another piece
I was looking for
and it jumped out at me.
Strange world.

Anyway! No sooner did the piece
hit me in the head
with all its mangrovia
than I see reference to Mangroves elsewhere
when talking about the Florida Keys
and then yet again
(Holy Baader-Meinhof, Batman!)
when I suddenly see mangrove after mangrove after frigging mangrove
protecting the coastline
of the land I am in
reminding me for the umpteenth
how fragile every ecosystem can be
to disruption
from even the mildest forces of decay.

It would be a shame
if this beautiful beach fell to decay.
I think you’d have liked it here
if you got out of your head enough
to enjoy it.

Anyway redux(!)
after all that talk
I later happened to pass by a mango grove.
What’re the odds of THAT?!