Do Not Look Through the Keyhole

Do Not Look Through the Keyhole

He told me once, never peek

Not when it’s quiet, not when it creaks

That door’s not locked for safety’s sake

It’s locked to hold what does not break

They buried the past beneath the floor

Bricks in the walls remember more

Every whisper has a name

Every shadow knows the game

I used to wonder, grip the door knob

Who made the rules, who stole, who robbed

But houses speak in silent codes

They bleed in rust, they rot in loads

The keyhole glowed one winter night

Faint and wrong, like swallowed light

I should have left it, let it pass

But I leaned close against the glass

A breath too cold for this world sighed

Something shifted on the other side

Not footsteps, no, too slow, too thick

It dragged, it grinned, it knew the trick

I blinked and blinked, but still I saw

The shape that should not have a jaw

It licked the edge of the keyhole’s rim

It watched me back, eyes black and grim

Now silence clings to every stair

My voice breaks in the open air

The locks are rusted, doors undone

The house still breathes, but I must run

You ask me why I never sleep

Why I don’t speak of what I keep

Just this, I say, before I go

Don’t look, not once, don’t want to know

The keyhole hums, a throatless tune

It sings to teeth, it feeds on gloom

And those who stare to feel control

Will lose more than their soul

So write it down, and mark it clear

Don’t let your pride come prowling near

Some doors aren’t made to be unsealed

Some truths should never be revealed