New Wine

New Wine
To stare down an empty well
dried, spined with weeds
filled with needs
of thirst-quenching rain
offers a piteous sight
that leads me to question
how anything can survive
in barren lands.
 
Then I recall the grapes—
                              gnarly, twisty vines
                              that seem to pine
                              yet thrive
their dendrite roots breathing in
all the nutrients
they can find,
breaking through cragged rock
and jagged stone.
Prone to survive
in most unwelcome places,
they yield their fruit in due time
when from these vines
fine wines will be produced
after the crushing, bleeding,
kneading time subsides,
when tattered grapes,
scattered on the pressing floor
shattered
battered
crushed
give birth to something new
to something
original
something
new.