The Crooked Master Key

The original version of The Crooked Master Key has been published in All of Me Vol. II, courtesy of Shadow Spark Publishing.

Listen to The Crooked Master Key by Richard Charles Stevens

Listen to Metahumans by Turbo Knight

In the very darkest corners of his mind
Were thoughts enshrined of all he left behind
Church bells chimed their mourning cries
Clouds pooled within the sprawling skies
Yawning wide these warring tribes
Performing rites to forge the ties of bind upon imploring eyes
While former heights were moored to falling tides

Blinded by reminded pains of yesterdays that came and passed
Overcast today and begging borrow from tomorrow with the sorrow making hollow of his desecrated heart
Torn apart by scorning chants of voices which informed his artistry
Coursing through each artery to see him bleeding torpidly
Awkwardly advancing through the thicket to the bastard tree
Thereafter he would forfeit crooked master key

Discovered in the pantry
On the top shelf as a child
Could never understand why it contorted with regards
Tragically this magic key was stripped of all its majesty
The moment he fell victim to the bickering of travesty
Held no clue as to if it could actually serve purpose
Took it to the locksmith
They were certain it was worthless
Surplus to requirements for a mind deprived of ripening

This code of silence stifled him
Opposed to primed enlightening
Unbeknownst to host each frond of bracken opened guiding him
Golden ponds had blackened
In assist of his inaction
While the skies once prized were prised apart
Chastising him
Harrowed his advancement through the thicket to the bastard tree
Suddenly, harked back to crooked master key

In the very deepest reaches of his soul
Were gifts long since beseechingly bestowed
Stolen at the turnpike as he rolled beneath the searchlight
Out of sight remained until he made his brave return flight
Spared a thought for all he found ironic
Wept out purest essence as a desperate measured tonic
The pain was no less chronic
Danger no less quadraphonic
Battlefield before him still posed threat Napoleonic
Though life once tragicomic now composed an ode more hopeful and melodic
And every dream redeemed was supersonic

Each self-believing smile contagious
Green mile travelled advantageous
Nothing callous
Nothing heinous
Reinventing constellations
Patient was the moon as it illuminated heron’s glance
Replacing fear with music steeped in chance

Armed with crooked master key
Advanced upon the bastard tree
Turned within the deepest knot
And watched on as it gasped relief
Even whence his armour had been cleaved
Destitution granted full reprieve
Even if life turned out to be make-believe
Then he possessed innate belief in days of old
To see this brave paroled from grope of bastard tree
To have
To hold a tale untold
Unbolted by the master key