John Lindley
Small Clues
A key,
a ring
and a key ring
is all we have to go on.
The key is as flat as a skate,
as cool as a river stone,
as squat, tiny and precise as a finch’s heart.
The ring is bridged
by a thin gold clip
that cuts its size by a sixth
and the key ring is
bullish as a dog collar;
the sort of ring that trails mortise keys
from a self-important belt strap
but here,
now,
beside a body
burned white by flashbulbs,
it lies unadorned -
a tarnished hoop that the latch key ignores.
The ring cannot be ignored;
from this angle it appears the only clue
that is three-dimensional.
Possibly the open iris
of the face down corpse
unblinking at eye level
sees both the key and the key ring’s height
but no-one else in the room does.
Searching for hairs,
dusting for prints,
probing for microfibres -
all of these things must be done
but none of them seem like essentials to me.
I hear another camera click,
see another flashbulb blaze,
watch the soft cascade of pages
of the detective’s black book
flutter like trick cards
and all think to do is
load the key ring,
bury the body,
palm the key
and insert the tip of my little finger
in the glittering gold ring
to see if it fits.
Page(s) 18-19
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The