Thomas Locicero’s most recent poem to appear here was “A Good Man” (May 2018).

Table Wine
for Joan
By Thomas Locicero

In kindness, I used the word “inexpensive”
to give him the impression he shopped wisely.
The stubby little neck, the Buddha body,
housing rejects from vines and wineries,
you would drink it only because you drank.
He would hook a finger in its deformed ring,
then swing his arm around as if to throw,
the lower half of the bottle settling
on the back of his shoulder, and from there
he would pour, making drinking swill seem cool.
He drank too much but drank to me. When I was
old enough to see, I saw through his wife’s eyes.
He was a fun drunk to me but not to her.
I began to make excuses. The cheaper
the wine, the easier it was to decline.