15 Esfand 1404
Quatrain 42 of 75
“And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape,
Bearing a vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas—the Grape!”
Reflection · Winter 1404
The Angel Shape stealing through the winter dusk comes earlier now — four o'clock and the light is already purple. The door agape in winter is agape against the cold, and what steals through is the vessel, the grape, the angel who knows what winter needs. Winter wine is the wine of maturation — pressed in autumn, aging in winter, becoming more complex, more willing to say complicated things than the young summer wine was.
And 'twas the Grape. Still. Even in the winter dusk, even through the cold door — the vessel contains what it always contained. The same miracle, available in every season, at every door, to every lip that is willing to receive it.