It was chocolate and liquor
and keys in the river
not quite in that order
but that was the recipe
Somehow, “Io ho dimenticato
la chiave” had become a theme
and she realized it had been lifelong:
Having a key
forgetting it
throwing it
down the garbage chute
hoisted with it by her own
hundred petards
dropping a key to eternity
Elevator . . . Shaft . . .
Then Basement below:
Lost sound of key hitting ground.
Then watching another key pinwheel
caught on the sash of a sunhat
Freed itself swiftly and sink.
Another was swallowed
By the lining of a purse
To return when she'd long before moved.
Wanting them back and
Needing them back:
The solutions we see
Seem to still slip away
So We Say with a Sigh:
Even Mimi loses her key and
Even Mimi dies.
(never mind the falling in love
and tuberculosis in-between.
was that and is that it?
what we've begun we have already done and we'll do it again and again?)
In the end
her father had strung
all his diplomas, awards
in the garage
like doomed hanged men
someone whose history papered
the walls and was written
with long-expired license plates
nailed to an outhouse stall
defiling his own success
Last days he walked a circle
over and over
altogether without a key