Primer (Brass + Lead)

The bullet base is made from the kind of brass that otherwise
would have been a classroom doorknob or cheap ring at one
of those prequarantine gathering places with games of chance
& lights that surprise & delight. Or molded into new French
horns for the underfunded youth band—no solos for the hornists,
but they are still vital to the orchestra. At the center of the brass
base: an igniter made out of lead. An igniter is only good at exploding,
but the lead might have scratched its love in meticulous notes
with old-time penmanship. Or become part of the paint behind
a Periodic Table of Elements in the back of a public-school
classroom: Pb, atomic number 82. It’s right there, lining Roman
aqueducts & wine vats at the other end of the empire. It’s right
there, holding reactors & their radiations close as a friend in need.
Walkman batteries running out in the middle of a slow jam again—
the voices get thicker & deeper in the lead correction. In some other
life, the primer probably would have gone in another direction.