Icarus Imposter – a poem by Mark Tulin – Amethyst Review

A jumping-off point not very far from the sun upon a vulnerable cliff, the hang glider navigates the wind and the clouds and the unstable waves below…
—  amethystmagazine.org/2020/01/04/icarus-imposter-a-poem-by-mark-tulin/

Icarus Imposter – a poem by Mark Tulin


A jumping-off point
not very far from the sun
upon a vulnerable cliff,
the hang glider navigates
the wind and the clouds
and the unstable waves below.

It is the hang glider’s lament
to be the deity he is not.
Not a bird or an airplane.
Certainly not an angel
coming down to rescue us
or a saint to perform miracles
that raises us higher.

More likely, an Icarus imposter,
an intolerant risk-taker,
a power broker of higher altitudes
whose only saving grace
is to come down without a loud crash
or to cheat himself out of death.