Keys (1972)
© 1972, 1981, 2013 by Dallas Denny
Source: Dallas Denny. (1981). Keys. Cumberlands, 18(2), p. 30.
The late Dr. Leonard Roberts was editor of Cumberlands. He was my father-in-law, but I suspect he chose my poem on its merits– for at the time of submission I was no longer married to his daughter.
Keys
Keys, keys
A lifetime of keys
Pitched into this bucket
Yale, they say
Master, they say
Samsonite, they say
Or Buick, or Fiat
I save keys
They unlock old memories
This is the key to my first car
The one with the bad brakes
This key fits my grandmother’s house
Although she never locks it
This key fits an army footlocker
In which I have stored
Things too private to tell you about
This tiny key fits a tiny lock
Long ago discarded
This big brass key
Fits the tightroom
At a mental hospital
Where I once worked
Or lived
I don’t remember which
This key fits the lab building
At my old college
Where I used to put together experiments
While my marriage was falling apart
And all the keys in this pile
Are the ones that must fit something
But I don’t know what
I’m going to keep them
Because some day they might fit something
Don’t laugh it’s happened before
With this key
I opened the trunk
Of a Chevrolet
And it is a Mercury key
And now it’s time
To put all my keys
Back into the bucket
They’ve done their trick
They’ve taken me back twenty years
I save keys
They unlock old memories
Image from http://natbloggyblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/keys-keys-keys.html