ah the boy beautiful
as only a god may be
as only a myth may be

you watched him
through the tangled trees
through overgrown underbrush

in your heart-ache
you followed him
through stuttering shadows

across meadows sunlit and flowering
you traced his path
you spied his meeting

the most beautiful boy
in the still mirror of a pool
giving himself entirely

to Narcissus on his knees
too smitten to speak to ripple
the fragile reflection

the harsh realization
withering the roots
of your voice burning

the dying petals
of a once-flowering heart
of a now melancholy nymph

[Hillary Lyon is editor for the small press poetry journals The Laughing Dog, and Veil: Journal of Darker Musings. She holds an MA in Literature from SMU. Her work has appeared recently in Red River Review, Scifaikuest, and Red Fez. She lives in Southern Arizona.]