Icarus

It's better to look at the sky than to live there.  Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.  --Truman Capote 

It wasn’t the sun that killed him.

It wasn’t the wings that were to blame; he knew

feathers, wax and fire

compose a deadly fusion.

In the end it was the wanting that took him

too far. 
Reason met its end

where desire was born, where he began

to believe it was better to die in flames

than live in safety’s hollow keeping.

Though a fool, he was not alone. 
Listen--the unspoken question
buried in the collective human heart:

Is there any greater joy?  To burn

because we flew too high

fought too hard

loved too deeply? it is this

we want written on our graves:

Here lies Icarus: he

who touched the sun.