You Were Born for Wine

The blind guides drool with glee—Look there,

the young men are coming back home, returning

to church in their search for meaning and purpose,

sheep and coins (more likely fathers). This good

news is meant to steady us, a righting of the ship.

They say Look, we see men as leaders walking.

~

Yet a few of us are troubled as we know what

might await you. For we have seen with eye and

ear and brow. We can tell you of a narrow way

that chills a man’s heart as his life grows older.

We know too-well the tepid taste of juice when

we were born for more. We were born for wine.

~

Ah, sons, be wise and wily. You’ve a birthright

they’ll gladly steal in exchange for certainty’s script—

a golden pottage of burden and duty that’ll rot you

from within. We’ll stay close as needed. You’ll know

us by our fruit. Always remember, you must be in

the church but not of it. You were born for wine.