Icarus And Friends Poem by Karen Esperanza

We are the ones
who fly too close to the sun,
with grace and such powerful ease.

Stopping to thank
the ones below
for never doing as they please.

The heat of the sun fills us all up
to the brim with joy and delight,
and so we keep flying for as long as we can
'til we forget the dark of the night.

Soon the first feather begins to fall
and then a couple more,
the wings that dear old dad made for us
will now take us to the shore.

Falling first, from the clear skies,
we crash down to the sea.
Below still waters are beasts aplenty,
waiting for you and me.

We fought them as we fought for life
we fought 'til we grew sore
gills, in fact, grew on our sides
so we could fight some more.

And so our plight had turned us into beasts
with a strangeness protruding from our heart
still we weren't discouraged in the least
to swim on back to the grimy start


Karen Soto