If I should be the sun
I hope you would be Icarus

fire stomach
plasma veins
magnetic waves
crackle
roar

extremes

 

your wings were coated in mud
gritty and camouflaged
unassuming
soaring

above the grass
above the breathing sea
above the tamaracks

You got too close.

If I should be the sun

you almost held the flame

easily spooked
afraid the forest fire would consume you
turn the tamaracks to ash

 

you were afraid
you turned around

 

But if I should be the sun
I hope I singed your wings

so that with each flap from tree to tree
the wind feels different
the air damper
thick and thirsty
missing

 

somewhere in-between the earth and the stars
you will realize
you miss the warmth

the way my rays felt on your skin

 

If I should be the sun
I hope you would be Icarus

Maggie Harless

 

Maggie Harless is an education student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where she resides with her roommate and twenty-three plants. Some of her work is forthcoming with Toe Good Poetry.

© 2018