Tin solder
They are called church keys, loop-handled and slot-eyed;
one tin-lead tear fixes each where hot iron touches.
She sits to work. Bunsen burners slow-hiss, and out in the bay
a high tongue of flame flowers from the gas-plant.
A hard case, he left in the night without warning, no softening
after all that shouting.
She glances between keys and tins. The day intensifies
its noon of sardines, solder, rosewater and sweat. She works,
minding how lips wear gilt on chalice rims
and seraphim in candlelight are packed in oil, laid
close as lovers’ souls, head to tail, locked reliquaries of foil
and vertebrae of salt lace in pink driftwood flesh.
She knows a kind of metal rose is rolled
from every opened lid, a tight-wound, sharp-edged spring.
After the siren she’ll find him. Tomorrow’s fleet will spew
the catch, and she will fix a key to every tin.
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