when he fell,
was it easy to call him icarus
when you knew he was the sun?

everyone knows sisyphus for his boulder
and atlas for the bend of his shoulders
and not the boys who were boys
before they became kings.

a body built for war,
a heart thrumming for more -
which do you think will leave a legacy?

they lay him down in dirt
and will remember him as charcoal
and the splatter of blood
instead of paint.

a rose for its thorns,
a plant for its prickle,
patroclus for his limbs.

he changed the world
in one million ways,
but all that’s left is the story
of how it tried to change him.