Icarus Ascending

By Eli Kowar

They call me Icarus
And tell me my story was doomed from the start
When I was young,
I heard whispers of the one,
Who almost flew higher than the sun.

I heard of how his wings of wax
Melted, dripping like gold down his back
How he gasped for air
During his dying fall
How he grasped for the feathers
As they drifted down
How he struggled to float
As the tide swallowed him whole
How he drowned in the clear water
As the waves glittered, and he sunk down
Forever lost, now one with the sea.

They forget who he was,
Before he fell.
They forget his crooked smiles
And his sun-kissed hair
His gleaming eyes,
And his dream to fly.
They forget that he was brilliant
Much like his father.
They forget what he once could have been,
That he was once flesh and blood,
Now he lies forgotten, a lesson on mortality.

Icarus was just a boy,
But I am so much more
I am a legacy of the gods
Who once walked the earth.
And if I fall, I’ll be glad,
I have no fear,
For I’ll relish the fall
It means I once flew.
My name will be branded in the clouds
And will burn me into history.

Icarus was just a myth,
But I will be a legend.
He was admired by the gods
But I’ll be treasured by the world
With golden wings and starry eyes.
He will no longer suffer,
I’ve come to take his place.
I will fall, as all things must,
I’ll rewrite the end of this story.
No one will fly higher than me.