Poetry Friday--"Waiting for Icarus"

It's time for me to revisit the "American Poets Project" collection published by The Library of America, Muriel Rukeyser: Selected Poems (edited by Adrienne Rich) [811.52 RUK]. Although Rukeyser passed away more than 30 years ago, I find her poems still speak to a contemporary audience, especially to the women.

Waiting for Icarus

He said he would be back and we'd drink wine together
He said that everything would be better than before
He said we were on the edge of a new relation
He said he would never again cringe before his father
He said that he was going to invent full-time
He said he loved me that going into me
He said was going into the world and the sky
He said all the buckles were very firm
He said the wax was the best wax
He said Wait for me here on the beach
He said Just don't cry

I remember the gulls and the waves
I remember the islands going dark on the sea
I remember the girls laughing
I remember they said he only wanted to get away from me
I remember mother saying    :    Inventors are like poets, a trashy lot
I remember she told me those who try out inventions are worse
I remember she added    :    Women who love such are the worst of all
I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer.
I would have liked to try those wings myself.
It would have been better than this.

Strap on your wings and fly over to A Teaching Life for the Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Engraving, "Ikarus" (1588) by Hendrik Goltzius courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art.