Icarus had told Eeyore they could never be friends
‘Eeyore, I am not like you, not like you at all,
I have no time for self-pity, no time to stop and stare,
I need to build these wings and take to the air.
Eeyore had felt sad.
He knew that Icarus saw the sky as something to conquer,
To master, he wanted to fly, to soar.
Eeyore saw the sky as only grey.
He only really noticed it when it rained,
He only knew a journey began, when he was on the train.
Icarus told his old friend he would never know how it felt to be free.
He had never had the imagination to see past his own nose.
He would only see the naked Emperor, and never his new clothes.
Eeyore only ever saw the consequences.
If he started a conversation with somebody new,
He would remember never to talk to strangers.
Icarus only saw the possibilities.
He saw the sky as something new to conquer.
He never saw the ground as something to fear.
Icarus built his wings, he wanted to touch the Sun,
He wanted to experience the warmth of a solar flare.
He wanted to feel unencumbered by the ground,
By everybody’s expectations.
He wanted his name to be remembered in Posterity,
He wanted his name to echo through the whole of eternity.
Eeyore never had the chance to warn his friend.
Eeyore had never known the exhilaration of touching the moon,
But he had known the pain of gravity,
Returning him too fast, and too soon.
Ben Macnair is an award-winning poet and playwright from Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. Follow him on Twitter @ benmacnair