She unfolds
and releases herself
above the chasm
--Fear's temptation--
--Hope's divide--
so deceptively narrow,
so impossibly wide,
I yearn to follow
to reach the consecrated ground
on the other side;

I covet a piece
of his waxen wing,
a crumb
of his courage,
a speck of his heart
(forgive my greed)
and push off
headfirst
into the void--

For a moment we hang
held up by the air
grasping
at the golden blood in the sun--

A select few
soar upward
on the cosmic wind--

Others
rain down
like beads of colored glass
into that bitter black soup
where Icarus
unfeathered his dream;

Oh how the white light entrances!
the radiant heat
I crave
I sense
the ocean fiercely
--pulling--
a lifetime
can happen
in that moment,
(I dare not blink)
while
suspended
in
the poet's sky.