The Plea of Icarus: A Love Story
Poets write lines like, I was in love
and love devoured me.
But, she pointed out, if you were already inside it
how could it swallow you?
After the oil spill the pelicans stumbled ashore
in dresses of black gold, whales with strings of mercury
threaded through their teeth.
We rose from the ocean together, she and I,
with pearls gathered in our hands like abacuses,
some so heavy they smoldered with a pink glow
as dragon’s eggs do when birthed from fire.
I tasted her from dawn til dusk.
She was the kind of woman the gods
struck lightning bolts into the earth for.
The kind of woman whose spine
sent men into a frenzy.
That is why I had to have her.
That is why I flew again toward the sun
and returned her to the sea from which she came.
My brothers, the rumor is this:
it was I who drowned.
But let me set the record straight-
it was she.
It was I who was swallowed.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
