The First Man To Fall Into The Sun

The first man to fall into the sun
radioed back temperatures
and apologized for lost equipment.
We gathered our possessions into a circle
and posted a guard.

The second man to fall into the sun
cried passages from Dante
live to an international audience.
We looked up. We looked up at the sun.
We killed the guard.
We burned our possessions.

Because the third man to fall into the sun
kept his silence, asleep that night
under an open sky
we dreamed of a red and yellow flower
larger than the world.

Author of the article

A teacher at Valencia College, Alan’s fiction has appeared in Boulevard Online, New Ohio Review, The Greensboro Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Hunger Mountain, Big Fiction Magazine, A-3 Press, The Gateway Review, Cobalt, and elsewhere. Short stories of his recently won contests sponsored by The Texas Observer, Driftwood Press, The Prism Review, and elsewhere. After an MA in Lit at the University of Florida and a poetry fellowship at Columbia, he earned his MFA at Western New England University.