+++

The Blue Key

+ 

“Clues are beautiful because I believe 

we’re all detectives.”  David Lynch 

+

after Mulholland Drive 

+

Beneath a red blanket, before you die,

those last fractured seconds klieg lit 

in half night Los Angeles sky, rewrite

yourself nubile Nancy Drew, outfitted 

in pearls, pink cardigans – stylized “teenage

detective” who sleeps with her mysterious

amnesiac friends.  Dreams can camouflage 

unfathomable guilt from a subconscious

enshrouded in a dead woman’s quilts for only 

so long before you’re deciphering clues — 

blue keys that unlock nothing but misery.

The monster behind the wall was always you.

Can switch apartments but secrets will creep 

toward a detective — even asleep. 

+

Kristin Garth is a Pushcart, Rhysling nominated sonneteer and a Best of the Net 2020 finalist, the author of a novella Flutter (TwistiT Press), The Stakes (Really Serious Literature) and many other books of poetry and prose.