Tuesday poem #34 : Joe Blades : where is tomorrow’s wine?

annapolis valley vines hang

                        heavy

with grapes waiting

            to freeze

before they can be

harvested

all this nor’easter rain

melts chocolates in pockets

turkey and plum pudding

picking crews hang

            christmas with family

wish to be in outside lane

moving slow with fresh

                        ice wine

but weather is not

            cooperating

bottles empty

too warm

            not truly winter

so living is unsettled

with an eye to outside

and anticipated arrival

            of a cold snap

            for their picking

gainful employment

24-hours max

            start to finish

wine pressed onsite

            estate bottled

before next month’s

            pruning begins

Joe Blades lives in Fredericton, NB, Canada. He is a visual artist–writer, educator, producer–host of the award-winning, long-playing Ashes, Paper, & Beans community radio program at CHSR 97.9 FM, founding publisher of Broken Jaw Press Inc., and a Past President of the League of Canadian Poets. The editor of ten collections, and the author of seven poetry books, including Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010), Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books, 2011), and three books in translation, his newest book, Iz knjige koja se ne zatvara, is translated by Tatjana Bijelić into Serbian, co-published by Art Print in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Broken Jaw Press, in Fredericton, NB.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan