Icarus' Feathers Poem by Val Morehouse

We will know and remember with
the inferno in our hearts,
the day a devil’s passport was stamped:
“Return to sender.”

“To God...To Mother...To my Belovéd...” Oh yes
we remember. Even as light inhales midnight and
evil smokes the street with
burning kerosene.

We remember how girders dissolve, arrowing
into the gut of a martyred tower;
we remember ladders of blood runged by people
raining dreams and lives like tickertape.

Yes. We remember his hands, soft with
the idleness of the rich watcher, who stokes
his furnace with the innocence of others.
By that, we, will know him.

As we gather in the steel
bones of a city and
wipe away terror with the wings
of our flag. Remember...

Let air dissolve into ashes.
Let angels feather in the stink of ozone.
His tracks are limned in the dust from
heaven’s visa lost.

We know him. Yes. And remember...
the inferno in our hearts that day a
devil’s passport was stamped
“Return to sender.”