It’s 1:30 am.

He takes me away from the others unpacking,

opens the front door to the first night

in our first home and squirts WD-40

over both hinges, explains

WD is water dispersal,

NASA concocted this stuff

to keep fields of rockets

from turning orange, then burnt umber.

He heard this on his pocket radio

cycling along blustery North London roads

that cut between the reservoirs,

buffeted by daydreams of microwaves

and languorous AM waves,

walloped by the slipstreams of juggernauts

that don’t recognise bike lanes

on B roads where streetlights won’t work.

He holds up my key and lubricates it

with a quick squirt of the clear oil,

slips it still wet in the lock

to revitalise inner gubbins:

he knows all the proper names.

When I turn my back to come inside

this kind man takes the squeak from the gate.