Being a collection of doggerel, verse, stories, politics, historical essays, satire, poetry, jokes, pictures and whatever else I damn well please on a variety of interesting (or otherwise) subjects.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Wings Like Icarus




The boy Icarus (you remember the tale)
Whose father made wings to escape from a jail,
Wings of wax and feathers and string,
Over the dark prison walls they took wing,
Over the sea and into the cloud.
Icarus waxed exceedingly proud,
And, forgetting the nature of the wings he wore,
Flew higher and farther, yearning for more,
Till finally, no longer able to bear,
The heat of the sun in that rarified air,
The wings collapsed and left him adrift,
In an ocean of air, with no means of lift.
Thus was the tale of Icarus ended,
His red blood with the blue water blended.

I, like Icarus, ascend to the skies,
On wings of my good father's device,
And like him, I soar, through no worth of my own,
Through skies of spirit, beating hard for home.
I, like Icarus, enjoying my wings,
Feeling the rapture that loftiness brings,
Am often tempted to think that I,
Powerful, virile, in charge of the sky,
Can conquer, alone, the clouds and the sea,
But I, like Icarus, must mindfully be,
Aware of the nature of the wings I wear,
The force that supports my life in the air,
I mustn't forget who has given me all,
Or I too, like Icarus, surely will fall.


-- Mark A. Clark

1 comment: