POEM
The Key to the Kingdom
Philip GrossIt's not exile, homes and families behind
us, where we meet. It happens anywhere,
now: a stateless
state of no name, quietly seceding
from the crumbling empires round us,
without stamps or Eurovision entries.
No-one does it with a rough guide in a week.
You inhabit it
or nothing. Like this: in a pavement cafe
you blink and you seem to surprise them,
the crowd, all its separate faces at once,
coming out of solution like crystals,
like a rush of starlings
or the breeze that lifts the canvas awning
now and dents your cappuccino froth
with a crisp little sound. And that's it:
between breaths, just between you and me
as if; yes,
QED. You are received. This is
the freedom of the city, and the key
to the kingdom, and its borders ripple
outwards like a frill of breaking wave
onto flat sand,
a wavering line already fading leaving
spume-flecks high and dry,
a prickling on your palm; you're five
years old, looking up at the whole sea,
unsure:
will you laugh or cry?
Source: Poetry (October 2001).
This poem originally appeared in the October 2001 issue of Poetry.
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Philip Gross lives in Bristol, England and teaches creative writing part-time at Bath Spa . . . MORE »
