This poem made into Magnets and Ladders www.magnetsandladders.org  a small online journal and won an honorable mention.

 

Keys

By Ann Chiappetta

 

Jagged

little metal Alloy trinkets

open tumblers

Strung together on rings, tied

To thongs or clipped to lanyards

 

Brass or silver toned

taste like cold blood

When clamped between lips and teeth

While Struggling to open the door

After Marathon shopping sprees

 

One might surmise keys are replaceable — after all

What is a locksmith for?

 

hand slips into pocket

fingering objects

touching the stories

Represented in physical sentiment’s

 

A pewter policeman’s hat, a plastic starfish

A silver dog bone

 

If someone else found these keys, would they know? Would

They understand the life

The symbolism

The unrevealed memories

 

Of a charm for a   father

Or a mother, gone

and the bone

Signifying the bond and love

for a guide dog?

 

Just trinkets

inserted into slots

And forever remembered with each turn

The opening of a  door

into a heart.

 

2014