The Key Within – A Poem

A new year

is beginning,

its pathway stretching

out before me

like a yellow brick road.

I wonder what

the year will bring

and I contemplate

what will come.

I decide to meditate

on the year ahead

and when I

close my eyes,

I can see clouds

filled with light.

Reaching out,

I pluck one

of the clouds

and hold it

close to my face.

The scent of cinnamon

and oranges, lemons

and juniper blossoms

fills the air

and the cloud

is pulsing softly

with a soft glow,

as if the cloud

holds a small heart.

Inside the cloud,

there is a small clockwork boy

made out of metal.

A key should be there,

sticking from his back,

but it is missing.

I put the metal boy

back inside the cloud

and I begin to look for the key.

I look into more clouds,

each filled with something different:

a silver chain with a pendant shaped like a star,

a small music box that plays a tune I didn’t know,

a post card, but I can’t see where it’s from.

I open my eyes

and find a woman

sitting next to me.

She offers me a serene smile.

“You won’t find what you’re looking for.”

She says softly.

Smiling, she holds

out a hand.

I watch as

a cloud forms

in her palm,

pulsing as if filled by light.

“Think of these clouds as wishes. They show what might be.”

I thought about what she said.

“But then if they are not what is coming, what are they?”

She laid a hand

on one of mine.

“They are wishes, hopes and dreams. It does not do to spend time wondering what will happen. You simply have to live.”

I nodded, feeling

a light grow around me.

“Where is the key for the boy?”

I asked gently.

“Why don’t you know?”

She said.

“It is inside of you. You already process the key. What you do with it is up to you.”  

Reaching out,

she touched my chest.

At her touch,

I watched as a the

outline of a key

filled my chest.

Though I knew it was impossible,

I could feel it there,

beating like a heart

inside of me.

“The key is a gift.”

She said, smiling.

“Use it to open what you will, but make sure that it unlocks brings you joy.”

I nodded, taking heed

of her words.

My sight began

to fill with soft, pulsing light,

so much so

that the woman was gone,

enveloped in a cocoon

of sublime brightness.

When I opened my eyes,

I was holding a key

in the palm of my hand.