Monday, October 8, 2012

October 8, 2012



First Taste of Wine

The Cassells cellar
Oh.
Really
A cellar
Earthen-floored
Must-scented
Raven-aired


Grandma Annie Cass-sells
and ten-year-old me

We heave away worn wooden doors
Throwing daylight underground
Pick our way down brick slab steps
Let our eyes adjust
Then I follow her
En route for
wooden plank shelves against one wall.
She stretches toward a dusty jug
Pours a half-pint jelly jar
One-quarter full
Pronouncing “grape juice” and
Taking a sip.
Passing the jelly jar to me
She cautions
“Just a little now.
It makes you feel all warm inside.”
Her eager
knobby fingers reach
for the jar
as it leaves my lips.