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Helios watched you tumble
into a bottle-green sea that washes sins
and wax and blood away, from a body slammed into the concrete
ocean.
Bruegel stared from an odd future land where his son was like you and he thought
of fatherhood
as a great classical analogy of temptation and failure.
Gowy cast you as a troubled soul harassed
by devilish waves
ignored again
by all but Dad.
The ploughman plows, his AirPods playing Dua Lipa.
Hark
Hark
as the sea nymphs cry for you, the paean of your accomplished failure.
Icarus bold, Icarus fell
Hark
as Icarus screams, his cry drowned in the roar of
sea fret.

The Other Cheek
By Charlotte Haley
Illustrations by Chloe Dootson-Graube

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