An Evening of Art and Stories at L'Space Gallery NYC, April 4th 2024 at 6 pm

 

Hinges

Melissa Stein

You opened this door. Forced it back
on its hinges, drove in the thin wedge, saying

“I may need to enter at a moment’s notice.”
But don’t you know that metal has memory, alive

the way rising dough resists a probing finger,
or trodden grass springs up against the foot’s imprint.

Even flesh that retains the rare bloom of a bruise
soon lets it go. You keep these iron plates apart 

so long they rust apart, flaking
into the slightest breeze, and still, 

they remember what it means to rest
against each other, folded like wings.