The Icarus of Craft
THE ICARUS OF CRAFT
Flying high is easy enough to accomplish
if your wings are pilfered feathers and waxwork.
The sky welcomes you,
invites you to drift among clouds
kissed by sunlight,
whispering winds sing your praises
in glad hopes that you will reside skyward.
Seeking the warmth of praise
to bask and bathe in, you beat
wings stolen in bits from others -
pins, semiplumes and bristles from one source,
filoplumes and contours from others,
with down taken at your leisure,
held together with the bee’s hard work.
You soar on purloined support
taking their praise as your own
until you soar too high,
too close to viability
and it all unravels,
the higher they brought you,
the faster they leave you
until plummeting earthward
is your only recourse.
Past mistakes are never so far away
that they cannot bite you on the backside,
yet if honesty were your only policy
you would never have to concern yourself
with recalling exactly what was yours
and what was not.
When you hit the waves
that will mask your grave,
ask yourself if it was worth it
while giving yourself excuses
stolen from somewhere else.
-----
Shared with those rich and famous folks over at DVerse Poets for OLN!
-----
©2023 Christopher Reilley
I would love to know what you thought about this piece.
Please consider leaving a comment.
I enjoyed your take on one of my favourite myths, Chris. I especially like the list of feather types, the ‘wings stolen in bits from others’.
ReplyDeleteOpening lines drew me to the story inspired with some Icarus myth. Love that it was a stolen wings and hard work from bees. You can only soar so high, until you dive down to your grave (while still blaming others). This part captured the greed and ignorance of it all:
ReplyDeleteYou soar on purloined support
taking their praise as your own
I really love how you used the myth as a metaphor and telling of the fall from hübris... alas it seems like there are those who seems to always attract new praise to raise them skyward (they probably lack wings and ride on their own hot air)
ReplyDelete