Complaint of the wine steward

Christian Century, Nov 1, 2000 by Kathy Coffey

   So my career has come to this:
   most splendid vintage ever to
   romance the palate, the cream of
   pearled morning and heathery night
   the wedding of weather and art
   a bouquet like a queen's perfume,
   sweet as melon, fragrant as lawn,
   crisp as breeze, with the depth of
   galaxy. In a drop I savor the cosmos.

   Then I hear the volume of the crowd
   increasing, the laughter skittering
   off loud edges, the telltale signs.
   Silken elixir squandered on tipsy louts!
   The mullish servants grunt, stupid as
   six stone jars; the groom blinks, dull.
   Driven, I must probe, that taste singing
   in memory, that whiff of Eden tantalizing
   the tongue: who wastes paradise on drunks?