A THEORY OF WHITE WINE. by Dan O’Connell

“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” so they filled them to the brim…What Jesus did here… was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory.”

Holy Bible, John 2:1-11

“The weakest wine is better than warm water…Wine is the best reward of merit.”     

Su Tung-p’o, b. 1037, China  

           

My mother – God rest her sober soul –

sipped a glass of rum as a nightcap

until the day she died, at ninety-nine;

told me it was the secret to long life.

And my father poured into my mind

the idea that moderation was key,

with his nightly pints of Guinness

and whiskey on the side;

he died at a ripe old age.

And I know a bartender that swears

so long as you drink lots of water

you can drink like a fish forever.

But whoever came up with the theory

that white wine during the day –

pricy stuff or cheap chardonnay –

didn’t count as drinking at all

was a goddamn genius.

Dan O’Connell is a four-time award winning poet. His poems have appeared over seventy times, including in Mississippi Review, Parthenon West Review, and most recently America Magazine (Foley Poetry Prize, 2015), Ina Coolbrith Poetry Prize (2017), RavensPerch (2018), and Ghost Town Review (2018). He is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Different Coasts, and Theory of Salvation. Find Dan O. at www.danoconnellpoetry.com