The Key. By Jon Bennett

I swung the gate closed
opened it

“See, this is the key!” I said

The dealer looked at me

winked, then

did a little jig

I used to live

in the building

and had a key for the parking lot

he sold crack in front of

and his customers

needed to fix and piss

and shit

in the locked parking lot

“This is the key!” I said

I had had everything locked in place

job, girlfriend, etc.

but now the dealer

I used to drive past

was my dealer, too

“Two, give me two,” I said

He gave me two

and then 

he had the key.

Jon Bennett writes and plays music in
San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.
You can find more of his work on Pandora,
Spotify and other streaming websites.