The logs recede
into the gleaming coals,
A mound of ash
appears before my eyes
As I stare into the
dying firelight,
Melancholy memories
fade to gray.
It’s here my heart
lives, in the blaze of day,
Beating beneath my
ribs, soldiering on,
Despite the intense
white inferno you
Kindle when you
wound the ones I love best.
I step into
twilight, feel Boreas
Blow lightly
against my sweltering brow,
So sharp and crisp,
cool relief, a balm for
The scorching gash
beneath my grieving chest.
I waited for him
among the chaste trees
Alongside the lush
riverbed, silver
And grey with
purple blossoms arching wide.
I waited though he
never came to me.
Daedalus, borne on
wings of your own scheme,
Merely to conceal
your labyrinthine heart,
Your hubris obscuring
my Ikarus
From me til I
watched him plunge to the sea.
* artwork by Frank Frazetta
* artwork by Frank Frazetta