POEMS/ The Key to it All
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The Key to it All
Try to remember where you last had the key.
Look for it in the ashes of yesterday’s fire.
Stir charred remnants of oak or birch
last breaths of living wood. Break apart
the pieces and grind them to dust.
Empty all the flowerpots, un-dig your garden,
re-walk all the trails that circle
through the woods. Pick up every stone
and log and rummage through the dirt.
Turn all the seams of your coats, and pants and jackets
inside out. Dump the contents of your purse
onto the floor. Sort through the pens
and crumpled lists of shopping
done at least a year ago, receipts, lipstick
and stuck-together cough drops.
Write all your relatives and friends.
Ask them if they have seen it.
Keep looking. Don’t give up the hunt.
Search the pockets of your imagination
where in some soft corner
full of balls of dust and cobwebs
a little golden key may hide.
Keep up the search through days
and weeks and years until
when you are old and weary
you have forgotten why you’re looking,
or you realize you never had the key
at all and didn’t really need it.
From All Roads Go Where They Will, 2010
Try to remember where you last had the key.
Look for it in the ashes of yesterday’s fire.
Stir charred remnants of oak or birch
last breaths of living wood. Break apart
the pieces and grind them to dust.
Empty all the flowerpots, un-dig your garden,
re-walk all the trails that circle
through the woods. Pick up every stone
and log and rummage through the dirt.
Turn all the seams of your coats, and pants and jackets
inside out. Dump the contents of your purse
onto the floor. Sort through the pens
and crumpled lists of shopping
done at least a year ago, receipts, lipstick
and stuck-together cough drops.
Write all your relatives and friends.
Ask them if they have seen it.
Keep looking. Don’t give up the hunt.
Search the pockets of your imagination
where in some soft corner
full of balls of dust and cobwebs
a little golden key may hide.
Keep up the search through days
and weeks and years until
when you are old and weary
you have forgotten why you’re looking,
or you realize you never had the key
at all and didn’t really need it.
From All Roads Go Where They Will, 2010