Photographs: The Dead
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“What did you see before the wax melted and you fell back to earth?” I ask him. It’s just the two of us here right now.
“Before your wings began to tear apart, did you touch the sun?”
I hope he thought of his mother as the wind whistled beside his ears. I hope he saw her face one last time as his name was called from a thousand feet above. He turns away from all of my questions, but I know he wants to answer. Even a thousand years later, he will not speak to me, not of this.
I wonder when Poseidon’s realm invaded his mouth, and the foam burned his nostrils, did he regret it? Did the young man in front of me beg to taste sweet air one last time? Or did he drift softly downwards into death?
I saw him only when his arms went slack, and the sea took him to the realm where all pathways end. As we waited out our years, no coin to give the ferryman, I watched his father sail by. Still, Icarus is silent.
Everyone told him about the fall. How he crashed into the ocean, and the once beautiful wings were shredded by the tides.
“They only think of your foolishness, Icarus. Or is it your hubris?”
He must remember the way his hands grabbed for nothing and everything, hope thinner than a strand of his dark hair. The shades laugh as they go by, lonely for talking because they too have no coins to make the passage. While we listen to their beratements, I bite my tongue and hold his hand.
“Do you fight the urge to tell them that, for a moment, you went where only gods had gone?”
He flinches.
“How long can you play the quiet game?”
He squeezes my hand and shakes his head. He will not speak of it. What was so terrible about the sky? Is there nothing so terrifying as absolute freedom?
“How long,” I whisper. “Before you scream that you are no cautionary tale?”
There’s a jury waiting to hear you speak, Icarus. Plead your case and show them what you learned from the clouds. It’s only a matter of time before you break your silence. It is only a little longer before your voice cracks, dry and trembling as you tell them how you flew.
How you were alive…
Featured Image Photo by Lachlan Gowen on Unsplash