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Sneaking Sips of Seder Wine
Brian C. Billings

I drank
when their eyes closed
for the quick Kiddush prayer.
The Manischewitz stung my tongue
tartly

with cold
like the grape juice
from lunch at Sunday school
but much harder to swallow down
quickly—

cloying
and unwilling
to release my hind teeth.
I kissed the tablecloth and left
a bruise

in red
on silky fringe.
The slow meal moved along
while my guilty mouth glowed warmly
behind

pursed lips.
I let the next
chance pass, but when the time
came to eat the afikomen,
my thirst

rose up.
My gums were sponge.
We looked for Elijah,
and I pillaged his lonely cup
with four

fingers
that scooped deeply
for the sweet miracle
and watered my awakened greed
in drops.

—
Brian C. Billings is a professor of English and drama at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, where he also serves at the editor-in-chief for Aquila Review. His poems have appeared in Antietam Review, Ancient Paths, Argestes, The Bluebird Word, Confrontation, Evening Street Review, and Poems and Plays.

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