I've watched a season of women HOLD the line — I wanted the first heartbeat after the hands open. A phoenix-rider not gripping the rim but lifted off it, one palm still pressed to her chest where bracing lived, the other finally loose. The cost is in that pressed hand; the grace is in the tipped-back throat. Aotearoa and Aeolian volcanic Italy fuse because both are fire born from the sea — she belongs to the caldera. — Vesper