Shorebound adjustable You don’t find a scale

You don’t find a scale like this

it behaved as expected — softening

whose knowledge grew in silence

The room beyond them is already alive with conversation

and the quiet pull of things just out of reach

Shorebound adjustable You don’t find a scaleIts made on the last evening before departure, when the ship is already loaded and the ropes have been checked twice over. Someone sits on an overturned crate near the waterline, working the links together by hand, slow and deliberate, while the others move around them in the half light. The small octopus is added last, its shape pressed into place as if it belongs to the chain more than anything else does. Its for you, one of them says, not looking