November 2021
Irene Voth
irenevoth@hotmail.com
Bio Note: I’m formerly a journalist and teacher. In my late 30s, as a full-time graduate student, I first became passionate about writing poetry. Following graduation, I wrote fewer and fewer poems, then none for 20 years. I am now retired and my passion for poetry has recently returned. I have had poems published in In Other Words, Burning Cloud Review, and The Artful Mind.

Bruegel’s The Fall of Icarus

Above a sea where the wind fills my sails
But does not ripple the water, Icarus
Flies, while I glide as if on ice atop the sea
And I, despite my puffed-out sails,
can pirouette at will then slide back and
Forth among the peaks in figure-eights 
that leave no wake – no evidence that
I’ve gone toe-to-toe with mountain tops
Reposing in the sun. 
And if amidst this fun, I hear a splash and 
know that Icarus has flown too high,
I wonder why a child of god cannot abide – cannot
Be satisfied with wind beneath his wings – and sigh.

Math Problem

One crow is one crow.
Two crows are a murder.
Not simple addition, then – 
Not one plus one.
Two times something in parentheses:
(A sociopathic urge)? (A malevolence)?
Two times something wrong
To get the answer right.
Be sure to show your work.
©2021 Irene Voth
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL