Precious Metal

Silverfish skitter under the baseboards

On either side of a slammed door

And I stand, dumbfounded, again

On the other side

Wondering how you’ve managed to sharpen

Your silver tongue into forty knives

When just last night

It slipped over mine like silverware

And just when I think that you might not care

You slink back in to ask

If it would take a silversmith

To plate this gray cloud with a silver lining

And I have to laugh

Because you’ve grown on me like silverweed

On the shoulder of a road I’ve travelled so long

That a silverback couldn’t throw me off

And at this point, it’s a need

To live to see the day

when the salt and pepper gray that grazed your temple

Has turned to silver

My precious metal