Balsamic Vinegar

Great works of art are distillates of memory
In which the essences of past experience,
Boiled down, fermented, pressed, enriched, and crisscross-linked
By hard-forged values will persist in simple
Narrative or smooth-formed stone or marching meter,
Resisting time’s relentless rub and scrape and as
On air, magically suspended, are carried
By a Persian carpet despite their ponderous weight.