Rust Poem by Alizon Kiel

1.

Rust is the tell of water’s dance with iron.

2.

Refrain in rust
I always remember rust
Rich color and contact carried
Remembered contact paper sticks to everything but the shelf to which it is intended
Rust was touch-your-hands discoloring
Had particles that stayed once run under some water in some sink some cyclone off-color browning reddening-riding down the drain in the slight
Had drawn a bath to red residuals that then pressed on an edge of white porcelain
Pressed just as the flowers I forgot I kept in pages in a dictionary on a table by the door
Remembered trouble rubs red rust into jean’s knees
Telling on you that you’d been climbing
On old farm equipment threshers reapers tractors you’d been riding in wheel borrows diving through old rust lined windows old rusty cased cars with duct-taped seats crackling under days old suns with windshields webbed in extended cracks one pebble made years ago wilting tires drowning in tall grass
Rust told on you your day’s story
Remembered what shaking heads and chapped lips smiled and denied