The Key
She toiled her days
Till her bones were weary and dried
And then without praise
She was left in the project, aside
Like refuse, dispensed with, dumped
Like an artifact that outworn its life
And so alone she suffered the lumped
Existence in the midden of human strife.
I would not remember her
If she did not always walk through days
Of memory, sick, tortured, in pity raised
Above the city's monuments and scars
That marks the sadness of civilization.
Her body sick, clutched in the strangulation
Of disease and pain
Drifted without wealth or mercy here;
For here where hospitals are everywhere
She more than the mariner was cursed. Vain
Was her hope to be rid of disease
Poverty had her encircled in its chain
And she in squalor froze in ease
Where money replaced man's love as keys.
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Submitted on July 07, 2013
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 2 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCDCDEAFGHHIJKILILL |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 763 |
Words | 140 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
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"The Key" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/87008/the-key>.
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