Robert Seatter
Icarus Writes Home
Sometimes he tried postcards
but the writing slipped off behind the picture,
escaped his fingers. And besides he knew
they would never believe the words his,
would pass them back, one to another,
like tarnished, foggy splinters of a mirror
they might find at the bottom of their pond -
while they searched for goldfish,
talked in bubbles.
Next, he sent packages: feathers
in paper bags, little balls of wax
with the imprint of his shoulder blades.
There were complicated drawings
of his journeys through the air - the colour
the sun made on Wednesdays in June,
parabola of the moon as it rolled
out of view. Or an origami version
of his idea for a parachute, complete with
technical dimensions - so they'd understand
his thoroughness, know him serious.
Still he failed to convince.
His last attempts were merely presence -
he waited in their rooms, stood
at their shoulders, trade a lamp in a corner
which gathered darkness on the pattern
of their wallpaper, or touched the dial
of their kitchen radio as they searched for news.
Hovering above them - lightly, oh so lightly -
he watched them sleeping,
their ears to the pillows, heard himself
fall again in the creak of their breathing,
listened to the sound of his dark blue drowning.
Page(s) 12
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The