Puer Aeternus
by Michael Doyle

It seems that from out of nowhere subtle
There's an argument that has no rebuttal
That all of my desire for the highest risk
Has passed my logic by walking tall and brisk

My life had always been fairly straight and narrrow
But there it is, plainer than all the shadows
The archetypes crawled across from Greek mythology 
To find their way into what passes for psychology

And something screams from the collective dreams
That are tied together in the universe's seams
It might be seen as the things parenthetical
That the experts pass off as somehow analytical

There it is, as I look in the mirror, revealed to see
That Cronus has taken my place, as I can clearly see
I have lived a life that could be described as provisional
Coveting freedom, however, it might seem as conditional

Like Peter Pan, I find restrictions somewhat intolerable
Time's passages are, at times, simply insufferable
The descent, the search, the ascent of Eleusinian mysteries 
Were in this life of my Iacchus, merely personal history

The shadow of the puer is Hook, who urges Peter to mature
It is that thing of how life happens as we nurture
The finer points of maturity which exceed the divine child
Who only wishes to play and find joy in everything wild

In this, we find the Metamorphoses serve for moral reflection
That might otherwise evade the passerby's casual detection
Finely worked as they are into the tales that we oft repeat
In the divine comedy we live too often as our life completes

Peter and Wendy are the classic tale of a doomed relationship
One narcissistically seeks only freedom and cannot come to grip
With the things of commitment that bring about stability
Wendy needs more than fleeting affection for life's acceptability 

It's now or Neverland, filled with childlike wonder and naivety
Such are the paths of modern life in all of its great complexity
Euphoric experiences seek pleasure to put aside and to forget
All those grown up things that lead to heartstrings and regret

Once upon a time is more than for fairy tales in their expression
The hurt that binds is the hurt that too often leads to depression
Maybe what Peter sought was to avoid his emotional disintegration
That came from being a lost boy, alone with his deep desperation? 

Nurture that inner child that we might each escape the empty shell
But do not stagnate in blocking development like a personal Hell
All of us have known some degree of bullying producing its trauma
There are difficult passages but what's life without its drama? 

(c) September 14, 2023  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved