After the class ends, the professor asks Hertha
to call him Will. He wants to know about her patents
and gives her a paper he wrote about modern geometry
to critique. As weeks pass,
they enjoy dinners with friends, including Ottilie
and her husband, whose children they admire in the nursery.
One evening they stroll past boys lifting sticks to light
the gas lamps. Some streets in southern London
already have the new electric streetlights, Will says.
Scientists are testing carbon, bamboo, cotton threads,
platinum, and horsehair as filaments
to make a glow in the vacuum of a bulb.
His hair is as dark as hers, though not as curly.
His high forehead is pale, his eyes gray and gentle.
Under the cream-colored glow,
Hertha and Will imagine a brighter night sky.