Embedded Files
The Happylands and Elsewhere by Paul O’DONOVAN (2010)
CD on line in Interzone Éditions
"The rebirth of Ra-Atum-Khepri, occurring during an Interzone Coffee-break T.V. commercial, causing a partial eclipse over the Westernlands."
(This phenomena may have coincided, or been caused, by Brion emerging from a lengthy 'Walk-in Dream Machine' seance)
"Dream-poles in the February snowfields ~ a white petrified sleep ensues."
Poem by
LYMAN ANDREWS, (From "Kaleidoscope" 1973)
(Illustration by Paul O'Donovan 2005)
ICARUS
Icarus, his hair
crackling like thunder
stood first on one leg
then on the other, trembling
at his father's touch
as the great wings were fittedwith strong bands of leather
across the narrow breast.
His feet quivered
and his heart jerked
with the young excitement
that leaves the bowels hollow,
until at last the wings
were on, and Daedalus stood
and said: these wings were made
for our escape; and frowned
a warning at his son
who couldn't hear a word.
Icarus plunged head down
into the shining air
and soaring, diving, rising
he rinsed himself of those
old terrors of earth, clay,
and metallic deaths:
but the sea glittered
with the strewn fragments
of the sun, and
the heat, white-hot
as new hammerleavings
stirred the wax to liquid
in the wings, until
the boy, Icarus
seeing feathers break-
ing free, struggled harder
and found he was not frightened
but feeling godlike
and in that blinding moment
he made his last, noble
effort, ignored the shout
of Daedalus, and sprang
still higher, until
his sweat sizzled
gashes broke red (bright coals)
through the charred crust
of his rib-cage
and then
only
ashes
falling like blackbirds
to the waiting sea
Knowing Bill will be concerned, Dr Benway has promised to consult you with his book of Shaman spells ASAP ~ however as you will know, he is currently busy in attendance at the Vatican where lucrative employment in the service of the pontiff has called him.
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