Icarus and His Kid Brother

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Icarus And………………………………………………………….. His Kid Brother

I

He yearned to soar.
(His name was Icarus.)

Hell, just one more.
(His nights were liquorous.)

The air was hot.
And his wax soon melted.

Sure, “one last shot,”
Which of course he belted,

It was no myth
to him who fanned

and chased it with
another and

the air and found
it wouldn’t support him.

another round…
The brief post mortem

In his defense,
you could say his fall

made no reference
to alcohol,

was no calamity—
until the landing.

to protect his family
and social standing.

 

II.

From childhood on, the elder’s eye
Was hunger-fixed upon the sky;
He was determined man should fly.

The other took things somewhat slower,
And set the bar a little lower
(Set in a bar—the partygoer.)

One soared and fell. One fell and fell,
As if into a well. Oh well…
Yet at the finish—strange to tell—

Their branching pathways left no trace;
Each wore—the noble and the base—
The same stunned wonder on his face.

Each left the earth without a sound.
Each searched for truth until he found
A sea of sorrow. Where he drowned.