Sunday, 9 June 2013

HEROIC IMAGES I: SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FLY, MR ICARUS?


How far we have gone
into the collective myth
where Icarus,
flying into the Sun,
burns his wings
at the hearth of Creation.


Icarus, gone mad,
inside his flying machine,
Technology promising to keep us going
so long as we believe
in its magic.


In an enormous lift of bootstring faith
we swoop and fly
over a horizon fit for heroes,
over a deep-blue sea full of
long-forgotten beginnings.


But now, in this created future lies
a more awesome mystery.
Already we stand in awe before
the fireball
in our feared vision, consumer of creation.


I sit in the kitchen, nowhere to go,
listening to Pink Floyd.
Outside, the summer rain turns the garden
into a jungle beyond control.


A sparrow peeks in at the window,
beak all quizzical
at the man locked inside four walls:


"So you think you can fly, Mr Icarus?"





RW, first draft, 15.VII.82, second draft, 15.XII.92.

Copyright, Rory Winter 2013

No comments:

Post a Comment