The Weight of Missing Brass

The Weight of Missing Brass is a poetry collection set in a fogbound Massachusetts island village, where a retired lighthouse keeper must learn what her years of watching the sea can teach her on shore.

When brass goes missing from the village shop, the chapel, and Ada’s telescope, she follows the evidence left behind: a shallow mark, a broken wheel track, an empty place in velvet. Her patient attention draws her toward Nels, an island boat repairer whose wish to leave is tangled with the thefts. Ruth, Ada’s longtime friend and the village shopkeeper, is among those living with the consequences.

Across nine chapters, these poems consider work, suspicion, departure, and the difficult difference between returning an object and restoring trust. The investigation unfolds alongside a quieter question: when does watchfulness become a way of holding on?

For readers drawn to atmospheric literary poetry and intimate stories of community, this collection offers a measured journey through loss, longing, and the possibility of letting go. The finished book includes 10 illustrations and a table of contents.