Late For A Very Important
Once again it's later than
I wanted it to be. There's no
hot water in the house, and I
hate to wash my hands with cold.
I'll have to go with dirty fingers
to talk with the glasses of wine
and drink with the mingling words.
I'll stand at the buffet and take
none of the chips and dip. I hope
the finger food includes toothpicked cheeses—always gone early,
so I don't want to be late.
Grasshopper
The grasshopper came back to drink its fill,
but the bottle was closed.
Atop the cap it stood quite still,
as if striking a pose,
stuck in the still damp trace
of wine left on the top
by hands that spilled some in their haste
to drink and drink and never stop.
And when the trace of wine was dry,
the grasshopper was gone,
the bottle was empty, and nobody's eye
could bear the light of dawn.
Andrew Shields lives in Basel, Switzerland. His collection of poems "Thomas Hardy Listens to Louis Armstrong" was published by Eyewear in 2015. His band Human Shields released the album "Somebody's Hometown" in 2015 and the EP "Défense de jouer" in 2016.
Twitter: @ShieldsAndrew