A loose excerpt from The Icarus Complex:

 

There was a child named Icarus,

Who always dreamed of touching the stars.

They had wonderful intelligent parents. 

God were they intelligent, 

And they were happy. 

 

But Icarus wanted more than happiness, 

Wanted more than trivial comforts. 

Their father once said, 

‘If you reach too low you’ll never takeoff, 

But if you got to high you’ll touch the sun.’ 

Icarus knew nothing could touch the sun without burning up, 

But if they didn’t take off,

They’d burn themselves out.

 

Icarus was smart too, 

just like their parents, 

And devised a plan from within their parents project. 

It was perfect! 

God was it perfect. 

Their parents found out about it and were scared, 

forbade them from doing it, 

But Icarus didn’t listen, 

oh no, 

It was perfect!

Perfect.

The pieces all fit together.

 

Yet everything started falling apart. 

Icarus’ parents started fighting, 

They didn’t know what to do with them. 

‘Icarus is too fixated.’ 

‘They’ll burn themselves out’ 

‘You encouraged them, this is all on you.’ 

They bickered back and forth about Icarus. Icarus thought they could fix it. 

After all it was about them, 

And they had the solution: 

Their plan was finished. 

They ushered their parents with them and took off. 

Flying, 

no, 

Soaring high, 

Together. 

Together they were everything 

And nothing 

And that’s all that mattered. 

 

But Icarus took them too far, 

Showed them too much. 

They reached the sun and fell. 

Separately and alone. 

Icarus’ parents didn’t recognize them, 

Didn’t hear their cries over the piercing wind that ripped their faces to bits. 

It was then Icarus realized that the worst feeling.

Wasn’t being lonely. 

It’s being forgotten by someone you could never forget.

 

The sad part is that Icarus laughed when they fell. 

Threw their head back 

And yelled into the winds, 

Arms spread wide, 

And teeth bared to the world. 

‘What’s there to lose now?’

All was gone and they didn’t care. 

There’s bitter triumph in crashing, 

They thought,

When you should be soaring in things like this. 

Death breathed burning kisses to their backsides

The sun painted everything in shades of gold

As if it wasn’t the cause, as if I wasn’t-

 

I-

 

They-

 

Icarus just realized there is a certain beauty 

In setting your world on fire,

And watching,

From the centre of the flames. 

 

They didn’t even take the chance to stop and touch the stars.