Shakespeare and Co. tearoom, a Story

Was it in my imagination or a dream?

Upon visiting the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore some years ago

I heard there was a tearoom in the store.

I was told to walk up the stairs and at the top I would find it.

Always in the search of a new tearoom I climbed the stairs.

Up I went, I can't remember how many steps or flights.

As I got closer to the top, the stairs narrowed and it became darker.

Are they right?  A tearoom at the top?

There was no one else around, yet onward I climbed.

At the top there were two doors, but only one said ENTER.

Slowly I opened the door.

It was rather dark inside.

Not sure this was a tearoom I stood in the doorway.

A dim light shown behind me, but as my eyes adjusted

I could see a group of people sitting on the floor in a circle in the dim room.

They must have been sipping tea, I am most sure of that.

They were sharing poetry in the darkness.

It spoke to me of another era,

a bohemian time

where poetry and tea were the tearoom

at the top of the stairs of a bookstore in Paris long ago. 

They bid me enter, but in my timidity I refused.

Now upon remembrance of this time so many years ago,

I could only wish I had taken the next step and entered.

It is a distant memory and one I can dream of yet today,

for poetry and tea would delight my soul in a dark

and dingy tearoom at the top of the stairs.

I didn't take any pictures,

so made an attempt to pull out the watercolors

and paint the stairs with it's hodge podge of books

that led to the tearoom at the top of the stairs.

A memory for sure, but could it have been a dream?

Quote on the wall at the bookstore:
"Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers Lest they be Angels in Disguise."

Linking to:  http://blog.bernideens.com/