Icarus Imposter – a poem by Mark Tulin

Icarus Imposter

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.

Mark Tulin is a former family therapist from California.  He has a poetry chapbook, Magical Yogis, and two upcoming books, The Asthmatic Kid, and a poetry collection, Awkward Grace. He has appeared in Fiction on the Web, Free Verse Revolution, Leaves of Ink, among anthologies and podcasts. His website is Crow On The Wire.