Joan Colby Verse-Virtual 2016 June

June 2016

I have written poetry and short fiction all my life and published a lot of it. My day job is editor of a trade publication Illinois Racing News. I live on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with my husband and various animals. My latest book, "Ribcage," (from Glass Lyre Press) recently won the 2015 Kithara Book Prize. I also am an associate editor of FutureCycle Press and Kentucky Review.

The Key for the Lost

Small, silver as a minnow, so insignificant
I can’t believe how you hold it up
Like a trophy, like the key to a 400-million dollar
Lottery. You’re outside looking in.
Everyone is still alive.
I remember Dad putting on his rainbow boots
And leaving. That must have been in 1983.
He hasn’t been back, but surely he might be.
That’s what the key is for, I say,
Holding out my hand. So when they return,
All those who are missing,
I can let them in.