The Key Ring, Mystified
by the entry of and turning of
the door’s deepest parts and the subsequent
movement of the door, had a secret yearning
to do what keys do so frequently.
It memorized the undulating cut
of each key including its subtlest taper
but never figured out how or what
could turn it into that long thin shape or
how a ring could uncoil and flatten out
and be remade as a tool for inserting.
His confidence never overcame his doubt.
He told himself there’s no converting
a ring into an oblong thing with a fluted edge,
and felt no comfort from this chilly knowledge.
• • •
Marc Tretin’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in such magazines as: Bayou Magazine, Bluestem Magazine Caliban Online, Common Ground Review, Crack the Spine, and Willow Review. He was the second runner-up for the Solstice literary magazine poetry prize in 2013 and the 2015 winner of the Audrey Wasson and Carol Leseure Scholarship in Poetry. His poetry collection, Pink Mattress, was published by New York Quarterly Press in 2016.