in five minutes
tears freeze into icicles
burn cold against sallow skin
gasping for air —
wheels screech down marble floors
watch where you’re going!
stumble through a spinning kaleidoscope of sound
hallways bending chalk-white walls
the flat sound of the monitor reverberates
through faint, ammonia-smelling air
fall back against a metal chair
the loud thump shattering
the conjured mirage
that Icarus would emerge as a phoenix before the final plunge
rise above the world, a large chessboard,
pieces shuffled by the impulsive fingers
of fate
taste freedom in the flames dripping down his trembling feathers
swallowing blackened scars and tissue
baring a pair
of lost crescent-moon eyes.