Oceans of Silver Cracks (REVISED)

[Achebe]

The eyes can sea

My eyes glistening like polished silverware.     

The ocean they hold.     better to use a simile rather than a metaphor here to avoid dissonance with the silverware simile above eg. My tears are like oceans  held back by dams / til they crack

Being held fast by a blockade of dams. 

Slowly crack by crack it falls into shambles. 

Bringing down with it heavenly fire, mermaid tears, and the kindness of elves. this line doesn't do anything for me. Heavenly fire and  mermaid tears as metaphors for ocean water themselves metaphors for tears is stretching things too far

Not a drop of water flows. 

Only words on a page escape these many fissures.[

What happens now I ask. 

I see nothing more than a face that shows no emotion,

but contains the sea where they all dwell.