“Hymn of Icarus” by Navaneeth Rajan, X: poetry

Hymn of Icarus

Pebbles dig at the spaces between his toes, waves lap at his feet, the rhythm of the sea.

Eyes glimmering, he feels himself lifted up, above the wind who sings in the empty canyon through aurora curtains dancing in a star-speckled sky beyond a rusting planet of dust and iron whipping around a blazing monolith, slingshotted

under the booming footfalls of Orion, along Ursa’s den.

Through the foggy arms of the milky way, past spiral galaxies and spectral nebulae, flecked with shattered stardust, faster than thought, faster than light, until he reaches the edge,

where he peers into endless infinity and falls.

—Navaneeth Rajan, X: poetry