Genius Loci

Genius Loci (a fiction?)

There is, in this house, some third party

hardly spoken of.

If mentioned, it would not be as a person;

nor would any groping for a name

secure its identity.

We sidestep its presence,

we do not think of it at sunset,

we leave it be and wish heartily

it extends the same grace to us.

Yet we know full well it is as graceless

as it is formless, immune to requests

to stop its activities, since it seems

one side of a crazed equation:

events without cause,

sensation without seen impulse.

Sometimes it troubles by removing 

small objects of little value

that may be found later in improbable places.

To show annoyance is only to

precipitate more childish theft.

(So, if cursed, it is beneath

one's breath.)

On the other hand, its capricious will

can be wondered at, if not feared,

or worse, imagining it a gatekeeper,

an elemental idiot savant,

letting through in the dim light

things worse than itself.

So, some sideways care is due;

prayers and burnt herbs

for such an imagined thing

will just not do.