People of Paper Wings

people of paper wings.

this is how moths die;
they burn alive, flying too close to the light
they so mindlessly pursue

like icarus and the sun,
drawn toward the fire—fearless
as salt, darkness and ice rages down below.

we all know how this will end.
this is not a magnetic pull,
it’s a gravitational force;
but let us stretch out our paper wings
risk the danger of reducing them to ashes
and let the current of the wind carry us
far from home.

thoughts of pursuing distant stars have more appeal
than of facing the darkness alone.

—By Tierney Reardon