In Salt Water All Metal Will Rust

Betty Benson

When the eyelid of the conscience hangs
heavy, you can hear with your eye
tuned to the soul.
All things metal share
the same mother. The Earth
gives up its dragons in Rinta
when the sea has no salt
rain falls in splinters. Tell-all
is better than secrets,
if you don’t mind the clanging
of doors. So, don’t crow
about jaywalking,
a crime must be a felony
to count. Your feet touch
carpets woven in low light
by children who pray
in the nighttime
waiting to eat with their hands
in the morning
from plates made of tin.
Your silver-white tears sing
in eye pockets
their songs dry in brine of relief
shikataganai the predator says
to the prey—
it cannot be helped—
a tell-all is no better than secrets,
if the eyelid of the conscience
will flutter, if the eyelid
of the conscience will close.

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Betty Benson
Betty Benson is a poet and writer living in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared in The Comstock Review, RockPaperPoem, The Avenue: A Mid-Atlantic Review, Glacial Hills Review, The Soliloquist, The Best of Choeofpleirn Press (2023), and others. She was a 2023 finalist for both the Small Orange Emerging Woman Poet Honor and for the Derek Burleson Poetry Prize. In 2025 she was awarded the Grace Potter Hearkens Award and was shortlisted for the Letter Review Prize.