FREE VERSE Poem: Icarus, by Alina Arshad

“Oh, Icarus” they say. “How cruel was your fate?”

All the nights you spent trapped beneath the ground,
Your heart, it longed to be free
Way up there you soared so high!
Did it hurt when you fell? Not from Heaven but from Earthly skies,
Down, down, down, to meet your demise.

“Oh, Icarus” he wept. “How foolish my son has been!”

The nights I spent forging our winged escape,
Only for your hubris to take shape.
Was it greed? What could have possessed you?
Down, down, down, all my work undone.

“Oh, Icarus” I sigh. “I wish I could change your ways.”

You never did learn how to fly, you could only fall, what other ending could there be for you,
after all.
What else could I have done? I broke you out, he had locked you in a cage,
Up, up, up you’re heading towards the sun