VENDANGE

Robert,

did you taste a glass of best Bordeaux
and wander Chartrons in your mind
when the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and the ‘I don’t knows’,
the ‘over-committed’ and ‘bloody no-shows’,
failed trials and broken body-blows
beat visions of cures black-blind?

Did you taste a glass of best Bordeaux,
did you wander Chartrons in your head?
When poison policies seep and entwine
dystrophic hearts and muscular minds
– they drown in sorrows of blood-shed wine
against a bomb of broken time.

Did you taste a glass of best Bordeaux
did you wander through Chartrons?
You led us towards a vintage year
campaigns hit the stratosphere,
the genie’s flown and is long gone;
therapies granted – licence is won.

So thank you Mr Meadowcroft
I will wander Chartrons in my mind,
I will raise a glass of Bordeaux aloft
and toast your legacy left behind:
it’s the alchemy of love from lead
the golden futures forged ahead
the soldered articles of faith
now set in silver sound and safe

Karis Williamson (2018)