Ray Harper
Keys
Sometimes in a miraculous knot of Chinese origin
And you prevented, disproportionately mad,
Keys can do this.
But now they lie all splayed,
A dead-hand, accident of limbs
With teeth of brass and silvery steel
Set on a split-ring jaw;
Once clenched in tense security of you
Now spilled and muted on the floor
Amidst the scree of personal debris.
And you, somewhere in there, your several privacies,
Your coming, going, staying,
Mapped in keys.
And you prevented, disproportionately mad,
Keys can do this.
But now they lie all splayed,
A dead-hand, accident of limbs
With teeth of brass and silvery steel
Set on a split-ring jaw;
Once clenched in tense security of you
Now spilled and muted on the floor
Amidst the scree of personal debris.
And you, somewhere in there, your several privacies,
Your coming, going, staying,
Mapped in keys.
Page(s) 21
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