Angel Who Cannot Fly

Angel Who Cannot Fly
© Surazeus
2026 08 03

I never see corpses fallen to Earth 
transform into angels with golden wings, 
but Carolyn assures me they are real, 
so I plant apple seeds in rotten hearts 
that reconstitute atoms of their souls 
to apples which I eat to know their minds. 

Molding my new body from river muck, 
and weaving tufts of grass to be my hair, 
Carolyn converts walnuts to my eyes, 
slots in the turtle shell to be my heart, 
then gives me horse legs so I can walk home, 
but I wander nowhere past Wonderland. 

I forget where my ancestors once lived 
so I stand in front of the stone library 
where every book that has never been written 
waits for me to wear them as mask of fate, 
but I go down to the river instead 
and wear the lithe sea trout as my new face. 

Startled at shouting of devils in Heaven, 
I look up to see ten thousand white ravens 
lined up along copper telephone lines 
which conduct voices of innocent ghosts 
as data signals to my pulsing brain 
so I understand secret dreams you hide. 

My father fixes wheels to the small wagon, 
which he fills with sand and hydrated lime, 
then drags it up the steep hill of concern 
where he smears muck on the wall of smooth stones, 
then heaves another stone from pile of hopes 
and slots it in place to build the field wall. 

Though he spends every day for fifty years 
constructing wall of respect with large stones, 
he only completes one tenth of the wall, 
so he requests that I finish his work, 
then lies down in soggy grave of his heart 
and becomes the angel who cannot fly. 

I decide I will not finish his wall, 
so I sell the land where ten generations 
of my ancestors lie buried in mud, 
and sail west on the adventurous sea 
to find the long-lost city of Atlantis 
where I will marry Princess Zathamar. 

Our stories are all fantasies of hope 
that guide our journey to the Promised Land, 
mapped by bloody hand of Odysseus, 
restored by his daughter, Cassiphone, 
who teaches me to play the violin 
which always causes warriors to cry.