16 Ordibehesht 1405
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 · Spring 1405
The angel stealing through the spring dusk — the long dusk of Ordibehesht, the first of the year's warm evenings, the door agape for the first time since the winter closed it. The vessel on the shoulder, the bid to taste — this is spring's specific mystery, the arrival of something you did not know you needed until it appeared. And it was the Grape! In spring the grape is blossom, the wine is last year's pressing, and the taste of it in the first warm dusk is both memory and anticipation simultaneously.
Taste it. The angel is here only at dusk and only when the door is agape. This one — this evening, this vessel, this angel shape in the threshold light — this one is now.