If this had been a real emergency

    This is just a test

    of our hierarchical

    hygienic system.

    If this had been a

    real emergency, you

    and other siblings

    would have been di-

    rected to a shower

    in one of the avail-

    able guest rooms.

    On a friend's advice

    I found myself lately

    in an expansive rol-

    ling meadow in Virgin-

    ia, where local vine-

    yards were exhibiting

    themselves. All about

    me, there were silent

    clusters of friends, 

    tippling from glasses

    oxidised in the sun,

    staring into screens

    they were petting with

    mesmerised absorption.

    The nimbler of these

    scholars even managed 

    to clasp both vessels 

    in the palm of a single

    hand, their extracts

    fusing pleasantly in

    the mind.