The Rocket That Stayed

A small workshop in Massachusetts on an April afternoon, cool window light, upright in a wooden stand by the workbench a liquid-fuel rocket one metre ninety-six tall, an open frame of thin matt silver steel tubes, at the top a slim cylindrical tank with a tube bow rising to the tip, in the middle a larger brushed cylindrical tank with a metal ring, valves and wires, at the foot a slender combustion chamber with a short dark conical nozzle, pipe joints wrapped in pale beige asbestos cord, a brass blowtorch on the bench, beside it a wooden camera on a tripod, a woman's hands in light blouse sleeves at its shutter release.