Graceful Drinking

Drink the richest burgundy and age yourself
with the swift changes of mirror
sliding into one stage after another
Some days the wind pleats the drapes
through an open window as a storm rolls,
and the dogs, embalmed with terror,
shake in the density of warm cover
Drink it anyway! the portraits crossing
the wall in time lines; the neutral gray
of dusk and dawn blurring into
beginnings and endings
For it is all only reflections, and
we are secret masters of the soft lens,
coming together, dividing, lifting our eyes
from sparkling cut glass to lead panes
In the end it is all the same, our blood
in a convex, our hands clapping
for the supporting actress,
the one we saw through the rose glasses,
carrying off the show on slim shoulders

Reviews

[Ed Hart]

you (you will see) are made for a longer time than most...when you are old, all the things you yearned for will be spread at your feet, and you will smile and shake your head (you will see)