Adam Fieled (Manhattan, New York, USA): "Icarus in New York"

if Icarus fell out of the sky
      & landed in Times Square,
miraculously, so as not
       to damage his body,
would anyone whirl
      to witness the event?

shorn of melted wings,
     would he take to begging
among the petty merchants
      & hustlers? Would he
find his feet and run,
       sprinting down Fifth Ave.
in a headlong push towards
      oblivion? Or jump off
Empire State, a suicidal victim
     of his own need to fly?

perhaps he’d make peace
     with the poverty of winglessness
and apply for work
     in the New York Public Library.

perhaps he’d take an apartment
     in Chelsea, furnish it rococo.

perhaps he’d run for office,
     become a private pilot,
take his sons on flights
      over the ocean, heedless
of the sun’s rage, remembering
      only promise.

© Adam Fieled 1999

originally published in American Writing 21