God said, “The curtain is thick; they are feasting.”
And I said, “But the men who came in last. They saw?”
God said, “They let the curtain fall behind them—and they forget!”
I said, “How came they by their jars of wine?”
God said, “In the treading of the press these are they who came to the top; they have climbed out over the edge, and filled their jars from below, and have gone into the house.”
And I said, “And if they had fallen as they climbed—?”
God said, “They had been wine.”
I stood a way off watching in the sunshine, and I shivered.
God lay in the sunshine watching too.
Then there rose one among the feasters, who said, “My brethren, let us pray!”