After He Fell
Location
Icarus loved the sun
Like a bullet loves a gun
Yet the sun was the bullet
And Icarus was the trigger
The bullet that bore through man’s flesh
And the sun melted Icarus’ wings
Scorched his skin like some kind of holy ritual
And Icarus laughed as he fell
Icarus laughed in bitter triumph
As gravity hugged him closer
He was supposed to be soaring
And here he was falling
The fall didn’t scare him
The view enchanted him
He went down in flames
But, oh, he went down with a smile
He went down knowing something better awaited him
Better than the chain-bound imprisonment of gravity in this world
Then he would finally fly
And his reign would prosper in the sky
He closed his eyes and laughed again
As the gun shot pierced his ears
A bullet would not break him
For his heart lied with the sun
Gravity would not detain him
For he was one with the sun
A faint voice whispered to him “open your eyes child, open your eyes.”
Icarus asked “is this paradise?”
The voice laughed “you’ve been told lies.”
And Icarus cried, oh he cried.