Before the Door
by Bill Yarrow
You just can't believe your key
won't open the front door anymore.
Determined to prove reality wrong,
you board a flight to Budapest
and walk wet streets in search of
a keyhole you're convinced exists.
And when you find it on the side door
of the Nicolae Bakery, your wry heart,
rapt with vindication, laughs heartily.
The key works! It really works!
But you don't enter. You don't dare.
Time passes. The seasons alter.
The world gives birth to triplets.
People drop hot pennies into your hat.
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Author's Note
This poem appeared in Atticus Review on July 19, 2011
Thanks, Katrina Gray.
The poem appears in Pointed Sentences (BlazeVOX, 2012).
Other stories by Bill Yarrow
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Bill, this is stunning!
I love this -- thank you *
Love the idea of searching the world for a place the key will fit. Great last line *
Your poem works! It really works! And I never doubted it would, not once. A hat full of hot pennies for your thoughts. Triplets?
Nicely written. Curious about the triplets.
Nice voice & phrasings in this piece, Bill.
"And when you find it on the side door
of the Nicolae Bakery, your wry heart,
rapt with vindication, laughs heartily.
The key works! It really works!"
Good work.
People drop hot pennies into your hat. Love.*
Bill, stunning. This is you at your finest.
*
Bill... Bill! This is so good! I love it.
*
Love the picture you paint and the story beneath it. *
Bill, Late to the party as usual.
"And when you find it on the side door
of the Nicolae Bakery, your wry heart,
rapt with vindication, laughs heartily."
wonderful *
I love a poem that makes you think all day, and this one is going to do just that. FAVE.
My rye heart laughed too.
fave
Know how the narrator feels. My key doesn't work either. *
Excellent work that gives so much. It feels good. It brings a smile and something else much deeper and satisfying as well. Bravo performance.
P.S. I like where it goes and how it goes, which for me is the essence of your poetry. Highly original fun.
That's like the story of finally reaching God's door, and then quietly walking down the steps without knocking. What would there be left to search for, after all? Very well done.*
hot penny poem
like it
*
Thanks for faving "Before the Door," Beate. Great comment!
(unable to write on your wall or message you.)
Wowza. Favorite.
*
The story this poem reminds me of is not necessarily a written one, though one of us may have written it in her diary, one of two of us. I discovered that my house key fit the lock in her gate. I tried it as a joke; when it worked, it left us amazed and shocked.
As I read the poem, one could travel so far and find the place where the key fits then not use it (perhaps out of mystical regard) then pay a high price (for that decision) in worldly ways.
It would be a bakery! Love this journey. *
that's what i want to do. go to budapest with a key in my pocket, a key to a door separating me from certain much needed solutions.
ah, thought I'd read everything you've posted, but somehow missed this one....it sounds so perfect to my ear, love "wry heart rapt" and "the world gives birth to triplets"....*