Grapes in a landscape

Another topical sketch for Ravenna Diagram, ripped from these headlines :

Israel Aims to Recreate Wine that Jesus and King David Drank

Hope for Nefertiti's Tomb, and Egypt's Economy

ANCIENT AIR

Articulate inchworm, lifting

little arches across

King Tut’s chambers –

shape-shifting hero (glyphic

frogman), testing the submerged

crevasse for Nefertiti.

O Jealous Fertility

Goddess of the Wine-Splurged

Sea!  Accept our offerings –

these cracked amphorae

full of ancient air

& semaphore (dusty grain bins).

Do whatever he tells you, she

directed them; the wine

from prehistoric pine-

nuts will transport us into Galilee.

But you have saved the good wine

until last.  These grapes

are not Israeli types,

nor Palestinian; they shine

in the landscape; this is beautiful.

The purple embroidery

around your lips, my

Queen!  The fiery eye of Yule,

the burning hearth of infantile

desire.  A trim Beatrice

flickers through bound hay-

bales (kayak, limping up the Nile).

12.2.15