Metallic bonding occurs between the atoms of metal elements. The outer electrons are free to move. This produces an electrostatic force of attraction between the positive metal ions and the negative delocalised electrons.
Our future is an alloy, not yet cast.
Sometimes it rocks gently on Scottish lochs,
back to back:
I read poetry and you, still vegan,
fishing rod in hand, turn and grin at me,
angling for a catch to cook,
over a campfire, under the stars.
Sometimes it sits quietly,
stirring Persian winds.
You’re bronzed
(not burnt)
because you know the myth
and chant it still.
Towers of books whisper possibilities.
Our girls drift in and out of weeks and years.
On blue-bleak embers,
in market squares, you take my hand:
spinning out and bumping back,
heart to heart,
hip to hip.
Cathy. Heathcliff.
Though apocalyptic is still a possibility:
our sun-crisped skin
holding redness, like petals,
from decade dried Chrysanthemums.
No. Not that.
This.
Side by side,
with tangled limbs,
you dream of copper,
I dream of tin.
And in the morning.
In the morning…
We wake amazed at what we’ve made -
shéer plód shines a gash gold-vermilion.
(With thanks to Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ted Hughes and China Drum for some of the poetry in our life)
