ICARUS

O Icarus, what were you thinking?
But it’s not thought:
just an urge in the bones,
some memory of lightness, of shafts,
and the simple sweep at the shoulders
that sends you further and further aloft.
Sheer exhilaration atones for all that follows,
except for your father’s unfathomable
sorrow.  You must have sensed
the meltdown; you must have felt
the singe of the sun while you soared
still higher; you must have chosen it all,
the undertow no less than the bliss.

~ Patricia Campbell Carlson