A Thousand Doors

This poem appears in The History of Dying Stars. The artwork presented with the poem was specifically commissioned for the book and represents the artist's interpretation of the poem.

A Thousand Doors
By Oscar S. Cisneros
A thousand doors slamming shut and behind each of them the nervous sound of locks locking, the gears and cogs and metal bolts of mechanisms old and new grinding sliding fastening into place. For each door, save one, there is a key: keys of heavy iron, rusted, made for iron locks that locked before this lifetime; keys of glass that open doors invisible, barriers unseen but felt, cool to the touch; dainty little keys for the dollhouse doors of childhood; elegant keys ornate for fancy doors that bar the unrefined; keys bejeweled, crystalline, for gilded doors of gold and diamonds, the doors of the rich, the doors of fame's desire; and delicate keys for wind-up music boxes, their brush-like teeth little more than pins that make music when turned. A thousand doors and almost a thousand keys, a key for every door save one, for the last door can only be opened from within.