Between the red winethat you poured
and the rising vapors
crowds coalesced
and broke apart ---
Between the red wine
that you poured
and the rising vapors
crowds
coalesced
and broke apart ---
though you spoke of all of us and why,
and not of them and ought,
some said, "He
isn't of our kind,"
and went home
to drink their tea,
yet in your time's sanguine
ferment
we tasted
what our kind could be.
Alan Dragoo is a scientist and poet who recently retired from the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC.