STEGANOGRAPHY

 

Dug up a muddy Mason jar

In the middle of the crossroads

In next door’s murky swamp

Crossroads are often used

As a dumping ground

For magical trash

Burned out candles

Earthen amulets

And apocryphal contracts

With dangerous demons

Probably not wise of me

To dig up that jar

Handling it

So I toss it over my fence

Wash my hands

And begin purification:

I purify what looks like a

Miniature dragon hoard of jewelry

I purify it with thunder water

Gathered in last month’s storm

I purify it with the blazing

Afternoon sun

I purify it with a lit stick of incense

I purify it with Earth, pouring the jewels

Into a huge pot of ginger

Sleeping for the last month

And here, the most important part

Of this hoard is a key

A steampunk key

With a Victorian lady

I nap in the sun

Dreaming about the key

With its gears and clocks

Waking with the knowledge of

Where the key fits

Many years ago

When the swamp was even wilder

Than today, I found a small mound

Dug into it finding a metal locked box

Shaking it, could hear something bumping

But didn’t want to take it apart

Put it in my car trunk under a

Pile of sleeping bags kept in case of

A Florida hurricane emergency

Somehow forgot about it but now

I remember the decorative box lock

And the shape of my just-found key

Sure to fit

Yes, the box opens perfectly

And now I see

There is another key

Almost as fancy as the one found today

Wrapped up in a tattered silk scarf is a

Pristine leather book

Somehow escaped the algae so common

In the subtropics

The key fit in the leather diary

But couldn’t identify the language

Or even the alphabet, almost resembling

The Voynich Manuscript

Eerie, alien, unidentifiable

But like reading Middle English or

Old newspaper cryptograms

I relaxed and let the words flow

My key to studying and solving

And the words did form

As this autistic brain of mine

Sought needed patterns

And a miniature sketch of the

Woman on my key

Looked back at me

Her name in calligraphy

Her personal grimoire of

Herbs and recipes

Steganography concealing

Her precious secrets

Like my written poetry

Hidden through time…

 

© 2024 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Key