On Icarus

Icarus the meteor, wing and wax

the scattered rocks. Remember, there

is only this much and this

much of wax today; if from

him, then from what wax held,

loosened over the Aegean Sea

his wings.


No one today will wax

a stone floor, if of limestone,

of granite, if of marble etc.,

they will leave it, keep the stone

colour: like lime, hive, like the coyote’s

fur-like cargo. Nor will many remember

Daedalus and his son who in crossing,

yes, a calm sea, sea-plunged from heat.

There was a splash, and the plowers

continued to plow.



/



Icarus is the sunlight, wax and wing
the warmth, the painted flesh
to be cut apart. Why did he fall
if his wings were by wax fastened?
What wax we use today, is it from him,
that sea-plummet; is it what was left:
why we can wax the floor
and zeal the letter?