Do Not Drink Servant Wine

Young Princess,

You are now of age to learn

of servant wine.

You must never drink it.

It is for the servants only.

It is made especially for them,

black and bitter.

Our viticulturists have perfected the grapes for it,

over hundreds of years

to produce a certain effect

in the drinker.

First, it provides only a moment

of pleasure and affable conversation.

Then, the drinker is struck by

a mild headache that grows

in intensity with each sip,

the conversation becomes sharper,

mean-spirited.

And, a growing sensitivity to light,

the flickering flame of a mere candle

brings searing pain.

Nausea, of course, follows.

The price for the pleasure

Is most exacting, most disproportionate.

In this way poverty is taught

to the servant,

that each fleeting moment of joy

of simple companionship

with shared wine,

it must be paid for

with suffering,

the way of the servant’s life,

feeble.

That lesson is not for you.