Icarus on ice skates
His wings of white knit
and crystals stretch like
Eros's bow before he flies.
Shoulders thrown back,
his spirit arcs across millions
of wire and airwave miles.
Over the heads of judges
who furiously cook and stir
their vat of sealing wax
to stamp a lesser score
whilst with each
gesture and landing
hearts are pierced
and spirits soar.
Sing, O diva goddesses, of how
Patti and John taught their boy
to channel stillness, listen within.
Too late for us but not for
our sons...Johnny learned that
falling down on the job
means leaving your soul in limbo
or locking away a dream.
Johnny tuned into his music
and learned how to skate
on a frozen corn field behind
his home dancing and
riffing over vented stalks.
He uprooted his family, twice,
sowing clan whirlwinds
with his inner compass,
but soon landed triples and
stuffed shelves with medals.
Tirelessly he courted the
unyielding Newark ice nymph,
caressing her with glides and
slides, averting coarse
shoves and scrapes.
And falling and landing,
until perching precise
a whirling hurling silver blade
on a slick film of ice.
He spun like a top across
continents and slingshot
past borders into the Russia
of his childhood dreams.
Off ice he landed in hot water,
a live wire spinning quotes
that sparkle and spark with glee.
Ten thousand times he flew
and dropped from the sky,
slowly numbing fears of pain,
fame, fear, love and being alone.
In guises like Leda’s swan,
he stroked upstream to
the real, ideal and truthful,
the whole, bold and beautiful.
Behold, the new Icarus…
our own gay Prometheus…
borne by music and silence,
buoyed by cheers, cinched
by tape and spangled with light,
silencing hurt and filled with heart,
crackling the air with Eros and the
sheer nerve of a soul in flight.
His supplicant spirit ascends
to Heaven and Olympus!
then plummets and slams
the ice-hard earth, again.
I dedicate this poem to Johnny, Patti and John Weir.
P.S. More of my Johnny-Weir-inspired posts are at http://aaaack.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-inner-johnny-and-evan.html and http://aaaack.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-my-heaven.html
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