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the salt lens

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The Salt Lens

 

They ground the crystal
with salt in the slurry,
each grain a star’s ghost
dissolving into glass.

 

Through it,
I could bring Saturn close enough
to see the shadow of a moon
crossing its face —

 

but the lens fogged
on nights when the sea‑wind rose,
salt reclaiming
what it had given.

 

At its clearest,
I saw my own eye
reflected in the dark between its rings,
and knew the map I sought
was also looking back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Author's Notes/Comments: 

Margin gloss (in an astronomer’s hand):

 

 

 

In some early glassmaking, sodium salts were used as flux to lower the melting point of silica.
Salt clarifies — and clouds — the lens.

Saturn’s rings are not solid — they are countless particles, each with its own shadow.

 

 

 

 

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©20 September 2025 - 12:02pm — redbrick
21 September 2025 - 2:22am — Pungus
Pungus's picture

Your precise depth of

Your precise depth of bolstering the boulder boldly in both worlds, palpitations of heart prowess, and firm divergence, gaping gateways, like splitting gaps through history!

peace, pot, tequila shot

Jesus loves us, stoned or not

21 September 2025 - 12:48pm — redbrick
redbrick's picture

I love how you’ve caught the

I love how you’ve caught the weight and the pulse together; that’s exactly where the poem lives for me.

here is poetry that doesn't always conform

galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver