We blame the plunge on Icarus, and villainize the joy he found in sudden emancipation,
and slander his innocence like a Greek Eve,
as if Icarus was a proud Babel-like usurper of divine prerogative,
rather than a child basking in newly unfettered expanse.
But on whose behalf was Icarus suspended by wax between sky and sea?
Daedalus escapes unscathed from our relentless moralizing of myth —
but is he at fault? he was simply a father who wished his son
the freedom to strain in happy victory against imprisoning gravity,
the freedom to far exceed his father in pursuit of lofty goals,
and the freedom to die at the hands of sunshine.
So, then, the death of Icarus is the burden of the gods?
no. the gods were pitifully hedonistic, petty, and depraved,
but they were not sadists, despite what Prometheus might say.
Perhaps, dear student of myth, you and I are at fault —
because Icarus is dead. Daedalus is grieving,
yet still we hunger for our bread and bloodstained circus, where
our gods fill our stomachs and fault can be identified by a disapproving thumb.
Wrap your pathos around the shaking shoulders of the bereft father,
whose son was dying for want of liberation, but
whose son was killed by the vital vastness of the open sky.
……………………..
For my father – pl