That Brave Boy
In ‘Wax-Winged Icarus’, Kate Austin captures the bitter and the sweet of letting go of all we hold on to.
Take flight, with the opening stanzas, excerpted here from Issue 6, Spring 2015, on sale now until January 31st.
Wax-Winged Icarus
I know you can’t help but
think this poem will be about
him, that brave boy, risking
his life for an impossible thrill, and
willing, maybe even happy I’ve
always thought, to pay the
price, but I’ll tell you right away —
I don’t care about some foolish boy who
broke his father’s heart
a father only a boy who lives
long enough to be one
as boys often do —
flying too close to the sun
diving from rocks high
above a stagnant pool,
driving under the influence.
It’s not just themselves they
kill —
But I wanted this to be about
suddenness of change, of being —
being suddenly grown up, fathers,
mothers, providers, and knowing somehow that
no road map, no folk
lore is preparation enough.
It’s men who mourn the obvious —
scuba and sky diving, ocean
kayaking, wilderness hikes with still-
single friends, unwillingly forced by child
birth to give up childish
pleasures.
Read the rest of this powerful poem, in your copy of Issue 6, Spring 2015, ON SALE now until January 31st!
Short-form writers, for your chance to appear in the magazine — and win $300! — enter the Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, now open!
Kate Austin is a poet, novelist, short story writer, editor, acquisitions editor, paralegal, occasional teacher (both of paralegals and of writers), avid movie goer, reader of a book a day, good friend, and busy! She can be found at kateaustin.ca.
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