The Key, by Ed Tedrow

This is known as a skeleton key.
I got it from my mother.
What lives dies.
The key is looped on to a shred of skin cut from a cow.
I wear it around my neck.
I can use the key at my discretion to let the wildman out of his cage.
Call him Iron John if you will.
I don't let him out very often.
Someimes I don't know when I'm doing it.
I forget myself at times and wear a mask or is it all the time?
The toys I play with are not enough even though they are golden.
They will remain toys unless I play with them near the wildman.
Then they become tools.
When they become tools my heart beats like a drum.
Spirits roar like flames.
A new creature that I do not understand is born.
When I do let him out he if free of the cage and is free to do courageous acts, free to do unusal things, free to ignore a thousand voices, free to take chances and challenges like walking on fire or water but he is also free to fall, free to starve.
Just as I am free to forget that he even exists.
This key reminds me that one of us is in disguise.

Ed Tedrow, 2004 NOMC Spring Retreat

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