Icarus

I am not quite sure you have been right about

everything.

About most things—I will give you that—

But all of them? I would shake my head, then,

And look at you with open eyes.

Will you to see yourself clearer than that.

Look for mirrors sharper than that

and pray for defiance of augury

and knowledge there is grace

            for the fall of every sparrow.

Even those such as Icarus. 

Triplicate

i.

I dreamed the long flight home,
saw that yours was the thought which made me smile,
drank the ocean air like elixir.
Stumbled words, laughed,
ached with threnody.

ii.

If only my arms were as strong as yours!
My solidity would then be unquestioned,
recursive rings tracing my lines.
Then the sunlight could sheet down my sides unfettered,
I could drink air,
and breathe song.

iii.

Who would have thought them sweet?
Those, those words
could bound flesh, thoughts, hope, pain?
Which one of them knew answers? and to
Which question? oh this love
both less and more, more
than I have ever known-


-R.F.B.

120 volt threnody

Escape these saturated colors and leap
(footlong and headloose)
into grey smoking waterfalls
and the white light of past generations,
stilling the electric nerve
and relentless neon pulse of uncertainty.

-Or, just dress that way on social media.
It might be easier, such insulation;
after all, the sepia world never did look like that.


-R.F.B