'Like seams of lead'

“Still life with mackerel, lemon and tomato,’’ by Vincent Van Gogh (1886)

“They lie in parallel rows,

on ice, head to tail,

each a foot of luminosity

barred with black bands,

which divide the scales’

radiant sections

like seams of lead

in a Tiffany window.’’

— From ‘Display of Mackerel,’’ by Mark Doty, formerly of Provincetown