icarus

The sun shone bright and swam

through the water beside

The ship on its way to

Somewhere over there.

All his life he watched

The mortals, the people,

Through a crack in his prison;

At times skipping, singing

At times down and all a-gloom

But mostly just

Free.

Icarus heard his father’s

Warnings but didn’t listen

As he took to the skies.

He soared, he did.

Broke through the clouds and

His father’s voice pleading

‘Icarus!’

was lost behind as he, finally,

Glimpsed the light.

But Icarus was loath to

Return to the ground–

To the earth from whence he came,

And the stupid boy thought he would go higher,

Push his wings harder to ascend, ascend, ascend,

But the sun glared disapproving at the human

In the sky, at the wax affixing wings to body

And then Icarus watched as feathers

Floated down on a gentle breeze

That did not reach him as he

Burned. The wax dripped

Dripped down on the

Ploughman, the

Shepherd, the

Fisherman.

But they were blind

Or took no notice

As Icarus

Fell.

His tiny legs were scarcely

Visible in an insignificant

Irrelevant corner of some painting

By some insignificant

Irrelevant Painter of Old.

Auden was right mostly about suffering.

The way it pauses, for a moment

On someone’s doorstep whilst

Someone next door is off doing

Stodgy, stale stuff or

Taking a doggy dump.

But sometimes, people

See

And don’t care.