- Vol. 08
- Chapter 12
Leaving the Key of Life
It was the last thing I left
On your desk
My responsibility
Your vanity
At your easy pleasure
I was that Celtic Princess
Of your wunderkammer
Then locked in a rusting cage
Hung outside the walls
Of Roxburgh Castle
Peeing down my legs
Under my skirts in summer, winter.
In my head, I had thrown it
Over the fence
I swung it on the heavy gaoler’s bunch
Round my head, whooping
I had tossed it into the sea
For the mermaids to ponder
And danced on the shifting sands
In driftwood smoke curls until sunrise
I had buried it in ancient soil
Delivered safely into the hands of the Gods of Iron
To be unearthed by another
In a better future
Leaving the Key of Life
I silently prised the stiff wire circles
Apart. Until the strip of skin under my thumb purpled
And I separated you from me on my own plain key ring
Undangling with the silver boot charm from a second Narcissus.