icarus on the shore

the story of icarus

“

i want to breathe!

strip my body of all its weight!

replace my soul with abstract wings attached to nothing!

—

alvaro de campos

tabs & pages

i. the sky

in it, he flew!

they always tell the end - the wax, the sea, the boy undone. here, i write the heights, the holy ache of ascent. icarus didn't fly for glory - he fled. from the ground that taught him agony, from the monsters disguised as men. he rose not to be remembered but to be free, and so, i rise too. this page is my altitude. this pen, a feathered wing burning at the edges. when there's nowhere to go but upwards and the land below bruises more than the sun ever could - is it not a mercy to burn? each line i write embodies the dizzy joy of escape, the breathless euphoria of weightlessness. let them speak of falling - i speak of the moment before, when spirit and body trembled with light. if i fall, let them say i touched paradise and knew the cost ... and still, i lept. [see works here]

ii. the sea

in it, he fell!

i still see him - icarus swallowed by the sea, the world convinced the story ends there. but i've never believed in endings so neat. what if hades listened? what if the ocean cradled him instead of killing him? this - what i write here - is not about the flight, but about the moments after. the drowning. the prayer spoken underwater. the wish for another chance. if you hear crying beneath the waves, it might be me, or him. both of us asking for new wings. both of us hoping that this time, the sun will be gentle. perhaps, daedalus will come back and say we're not too broken to try again. [see works here]

iii. about

in it, he was made!

my what, who, and for is engraved here. visit it for the specifics of it all. you'll see. [see it here]

“                    

my crimson and salty blood

my chewed up bitten heart

my brain lost in haunted thoughts

my gift to you

on this blazing summer night

by the seashore

all my love,

icarus

               ”