An Open Letter to Icarus
by Alexis Grace McGlothlin
College of Charleston
Alexis McGlothlin has been writing poetry for over a decade. Their work has appeared in Collision Literary Magazine twice, in 2015 and 2016, during their time as a student of Ball State University. After taking time away from academia and moving to South Carolina, they are now an English student at the College of Charleston. Alexis lives their husband and two four-legged editors, Sunshine and Beep, all of whom help immensely in the writing process.
You watched your wings smoke and smolder, unable to fly, choices made and regretted -
That does not mean I do not deserve the chance to use mine.
You looked at your own stumbles and errors and decided to turn them into a prison, delivering an infant from the warmth of a mother’s embrace into the sun-scalded feathers of your past
Imprinting you you you onto their being instead of new new new
Forming mistake from the letters in daughter
My wings are not yours, and I will not pretend I cannot fly any longer.