Clicks and Catches

I fumble with the latch, rusted and old,

     it sticks just a moment, like memories trapped,

     each click of the mechanism, a story untold,

     of doors left ajar, where time has perhaps napped.

As I pull it shut, there’s a tension I feel,

     a barrier woven through moments long gone,

     when childhood safety was felt, made real,

     now a simple catch guards what I lean on.

There’s magic in locks, in the close of a gate,

     a breath held in quiet, a heartbeat confined,

     I wonder what treasures I leave to fate,

     as I linger in thresholds, my past intertwined.