SCIENCE EXPERIMENT GONE AWRY

The Hawk Kitchen 3:20pm

a puddle of smouldering rust

resides in the base

of My Lamp’s Crystal Ball

— did I tell You I cleaned It?

two days ago I held the stem of The Lamp sideways

under a running tap

and lathered the dusty cut glass

with a toothbrush

and rinsed It and so soaked It

enough to have the fake brass flanges leak

whereby My New Crystal Ball fogged up

at the top when righted

water collected on the bottom

with no apparent outlet

and sits there turning brown

like an accidental terrarium