Minotaur Eyes

We live in a house

You and I 

A drafty old box  

A labyrinth of rooms

Empty and forgotten

Yet

After all this time 

A few still bathe in sunshine

Those

The ones we share 

You and I

After so many years together

My love

We guard this crumbling Empire

From the creeping twilight.

But there’s one room you lock

Tight

Just one

Locked like a box

Pandora’s box

Just one

Out of all those many rooms

Up the spandrel stairs and

Down the hall

Last door on the left 

(Or is it the right?)

I never go there for 

I love you

I love you so

I love you so much 

To ever ask

What hides in that room

That malodorous tomb 

Where long ago

You trapped some septic slice of your 

Self 

Up there to dwell

Alone

In the dark

In the demon dark.

And so a truce endured for years

Me, troubled but faithful

Our interloper locked away

Kept at bay

Though I’d swear to God in heaven that

Sometimes

During the longest nights of the winter season

During the emptiest hours before dawn 

As some January blizzard howled outside 

I’d hear something wandering the halls

Rap rap rapping on the doors

Tap tap tapping on the walls

Searching

For you?

For me?

But maybe I’m wrong

(You know how my imagination gets away from me)

My love.

And so it went 

Until one morning in the merry month of May

In that optimistic spring of sunbeams and bird songs

(Oh, Sol Invictus! I sing your song after a winter so long!)

I plucked up my courage

My love-cowed courage

And gazed into your eyes

Your minotaur eyes  

My dear 

My dear

I whispered 

In your ear

Let’s open that door

You and I

Let’s enter that cursed room

You and I 

Let’s vanquish what’s inside

Together

Hand in hand

Once and for all

Amor Invictus and all that!

Nothing can stop us

Together!

But she only blinked and smiled

And looked into my eyes

My puppy dog eyes

You fool 

You reckless fool

She whispered 

In my ear

Why would we set 

It 

Free

To devour first you, and then me? 

Would you throw us all away

In this merry month of May?

And for what? 

Amor Invictus and all that?

Oh, grow up, you silly man 

That, up there, belongs to me

Is me

Always has been

Always will be

You should know that by now

Love it as you love me

Now leave it be!

Of course, my love

I whisper in your ear

You’re right

You’re always right

What was I thinking

Forgive me 

Let’s not dwell on it any longer 

I’ll make us some 

pancakes.

House by the Railroad by Edward Hopper, 1925

_____

PDW

Dry Grove, Il

March 2026