Women's History Month: Ann Tweedy's "A Journey"

A JOURNEY 

The key knows the darkness 
of the lock, the tightness 
of metal walls against it. 
It knows that sometimes its points 
don’t match the notches--
 it knows paralysis. And it knows the click 
of points that marks permission. 

The key knows it is only one piece
of any puzzle. 

It knows the grip of a woman’s
 hand as she walks around in the dark,
 pointing it like a gun, and also 
the warm loneliness of a pocket. 

The key is not indifferent,
but it is at peace with its powerlessness. 

The key remembers how it was 
to be part of the nowhere 
and everywhere of the Earth. 

They key remembers the blades
 of shovels, the knife-points of drills, 
the tremors of dynamite
 that finally came for it. 

The key remembers being pried 
and then heated until it pooled 
and shimmered. The key remembers 
the sudden tightness of the cast 
and how the freedom of movement 
drained from it.

© 2019 Ann Tweedy




Ann Tweedy's first full length book, The Body's Alphabet, was published by Headmistress Press in 2016 and was awarded a Bisexual Book Award in poetry and a Human Relations Indie Book Award.  It was also a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and for a Golden Crown Literary Society Award.  She also has published two chapbooks, and her poetry has appeared in Clackamas Literary Review, Rattle, literary mama, and elsewhere. She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has also been nominated for a Bet of the Net Award.  Ann holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. Originally from Massachusetts, she has lived in many places in the Midwest and on the West Coast.  She currently makes her home in Washington State, where she works as in-house attorney for the Muckleshoot Tribe.  You can read more about her at www.anntweedy.com.