I'd invoke the Muse,
But she's a bitch.
If you're going to look for a moral
To this story,
Wait until the end.
So Phaeton and Icarus,
They were boyfriends.
But, you see,
Helios was a devout
Heterosexual,
And Daedalus, well
He had political
Stuff.
He said his position
Was too high
For a scandal.
And Clymene–
Phaeton's mom–
Said he lowered
His father's stance
With such a relationship.
Phaeton was in hot water.
His mother–
Who, by the way,
Was married
To another guy–
Wouldn't shut up
About how in-
Fucking-
Credible Helios was,
And she yelled at
And scolded
And berated
And lectured
Her son.
Icarus got lost
Somewhere in the middle of
His father's lectures.
He never really listened to them.
They just had to escape
Their parents.
They wrote each other
Secret letters,
As they could not
Escape
Their parents' watchful eyes.
They made a plan so perfect,
So concise,
So simple,
It was as if their lives
Were constructed
For their perfect future
Together, as
Though this were
Intended by the Moirai.
Daedalus, even with his
Stuff,
Was still building new things,
Perfect things for Icarus.
And Phaeton
Just had to go see his
Dick father–
Who he actually
Had never met–
And take his
Fancy chariot.
He always wanted to
Take it for a spin.
Icarus thought
Larceny
Was a pretty good idea.
He, along with
His love,
Liked to make mischief.
The two were
So cute together,
So in line with each other's
Thinking.
With a plan in place,
Phaeton asked Clymene
Where his father lived.
After an hour of the nymph
Verbally
Jizzing
Over her old booty call,
She finally told the boy
Where to find the "big, strong,
Amazingly endowed god of daylight."
So Phaeton set out
For his father's
Summer home
In Japan.
Meanwhile, shit got weird for
Icarus. Daedalus'
Stuff
Screwed him in the end.
His whole career unspooled
On him. He was trapped
Under the psychotic eye
Of Generalissimo Minos.
He had to move his projects
Underground. He lost his funding,
Slowing down his most ambitious project,
The one icarus needed to steal.
Life was so unfair.
At that point, you'd think dear old
Daed could maybe relax
About having
A homo for a son, but no.
The only things that made that hell
A little better were
The letters brought by Cupid.
It paid to have a boyfriend
With useful boarding school buddies.
It was a long trip for Phaeton.
He walked and rode for miles through—
Fuck it.
Just fuck it.
Nobody cares how he got there.
You don't care.
Anyway, he got to Japan
Hours before sunrise.
The palace of Helios was impressive,
But his mother definitely
Exaggerated the size.
Entering the palace, he snuck past
The many serving ladies: the Hours,
The Days, the Years, the Weeks,
The Months, the Minutes, the Seconds and
The Centuries,
On his way to the stable.
When he got there, he was
A little surprised to meet
His stepmom,
Amaterasu.
She glared at him and barked,
"The fuck are you?"
And he stood proudly
And replied, "I am Phaeton.
And, like, my dad owns this chariot.
He said "I, was, whatever,
Bequeathed this chariot
From him to drive today…
On a loan."
He thought she was
Another servant.
The Millennium or something.
She lost her shit.
"Bitch! I own this chariot.
Your 'dad' married into my fortune,
For I am Amaterasu, goddess of the sun,
And this chariot is his responsibility.
No one but him can ride it."
And again she asked, "The fuck are you?"
Phaeton felt his balls shrivel
And he said,
"Yeah, I lied about the last part,
But I am actually his son.
You know,
Your husband has a wandering dick.
Hopefully that's not,
Like, a big surprise.
I'm a lot like him,
Except my dick just wants to wander
To one place, but it's a guy's
um, place.
Icarus.
His… place…"
His eyes glazed
With his mind's image
Of Icarus and his gorgeous
Naked body,
Of days they could spend
Together,
Forever.
Away from fathers
And mothers
And stepmoms.
Away
From laws and relations
And positions
And scandals and
Stuff.
His mind filled with fire,
A fire that simmered
Since he and his love
Were pulled from
Each other's embrace
By ignorance
And hatred
And laws
And morals.
Letters for months
Were never enough.
He wanted to hold Icarus again,
Skin to skin,
Lip to lip
Eyes meeting,
Pores opening,
As sweat glistened and slid
Down their bodies,
Mixing together
Until there was no
Distinction between the two,
Just a concoction that could
Only be called their own.
Two beings, living and dying
Together
And joining the stars in heaven.
His mind was so inflamed by passion,
Consumed by his impending goal,
And he did not realize
That he had grabbed his father's
Golden bow
Hanging on the wall
And pointed an arrow
At his stepmom's
Head.
He stared in her steely
Eyes
His uncertain voice fluttered.
"I'm stealing this shit!"
He jumped on the chariot,
Whipped the reins,
And launched into the sky.
That night, Icarus was prepared.
His father had
Completed his project
Only a week before.
Cupid came to him in the night
Bringing Phaeton's latest letter.
"He's almost there" said Cupid,
"Go live your lives
And love every moment
That you can have together.
It can all go away too soon.
I would do all I can to see my Psyche
For one more moment,
And eternity is just a moment, anyway.
Your dreams are ahead. Nothing should
Stop you
From finding eternity
Together."
With a nod of his head, he soared into the
Sky, Icarus studying how he flew,
Leaving the boy
To steal his father's
Project
And fly to his love,
His moment,
His eternity.
He tiptoed past his father,
Sleeping Daedalus,
Into the basement,
To the workbench,
To the project.
Each feather, tied along a wax curve
Grew longer and longer
On the way to the tip,
And down so light
His breath blew it like a wind storm
Covered the whole shape
Of each wing.
He stacked them
Atop each other,
And ran
On his toes
Out of his prison
Onto the roof,
Looking east
As the sun rose early.
Phaeton's knees were weak.
The horses bucked
And whipped
Back and forth
Like they'd never been tamed.
He looked back
At his stepmom's castle.
His father,
The asshole,
Stood by the gate
With Amaterasu,
Staring, confused,
At the chariot
That ran westward
To a fated moment.
The lovers
Were ready
To see
Each other.
Icarus put on the wings
As the dawn zigzagged
Over the earth,
Racing across the sky.
He faced the wind
And spread his arms,
Rocketing him up
Past the clouds.
He appeared as a dot
In his lover's vision;
His lover, whose
Eye
Was caught by a winged
Figure. A happy shadow
Beyond a violent glare.
Phaeton fired his golden arrows
At the beasts in the stars,
Wrapping the reins around his wrists,
The leather tightening,
His arms bleeding.
Icarus
Flew to the fiery chariot
Pumping his arms
Until his chest
Felt like it would
Split open
And the leather ties
Cut into his wrists,
Fusing with the flesh
Of his bleeding arms.
Both battered, weakened,
Bloody young lovers
Were now so close they could see
Their faces.
Icarus smiled at Phaeton,
Whose eyes betrayed terror,
As he saw his boyfriend's wings
Melting in the heat of the chariot.
Icarus followed Phaeton's eyes
To the wax that dripped onto his arm,
Pouring into
His open wrists.
He began to fall.
Phaeton,
He couldn't think about anything
But love.
He jumped out of the chariot.
The reins dug down to the bone.
He hung below the horses, pulling them
Down
Toward the sea,
Toward Icarus
Whose wings melted more and more,
The wax covering his arms
And chest,
Burning every inch of his skin,
Making a statue
Of his perfect body
As he spun and somersaulted
Down to the water
Below.
Phaeton twisted
His wrists
To get out of the reins,
Pulling the skin off of his hands
Like a glove,
Shocking every sense
With pain.
His eyes shut
And tightened
Against his will
And a fever rose in his head
As his claws
Reached down to Icarus.
The boy with wings stared up,
Unable to close his arms,
As the wax held them to the side.
He saw sharp bones
Extended toward him
From above,
Attached to a wincing face
Eyes squinted shut
From burning pain,
Shooting to him like an arrow.
Phaeton forced his eyes open
As he fell closer
And closer
To Icarus, who,
With tears in his
Wide eyes,
Met his gaze.
The tips
Of what used to be fingers
Sunk into the wax
Of what used to be wings,
And the lovers' bodies
Slammed together,
Skin to wax,
Lips to wind,
Crying eyes straining to meet.
Blood mixed with sweat
With wax and spit
And tears,
A concoction that could only be called
Their own.
They burned together
In pain,
In wax,
Breathing,
Living
And dying
Together,
Limbs aflame,
Sinking from the stars,
Away from a life together.
Only a moment
And that moment was an eternity.
And the water rose
And rose
And rose
And rose
Until all came to a black
Stop.
And the chariot crashed only
A mile away,
As farmers on a nearby hill
Ignored
The tumbling embrace
Of Phaeton and Icarus
Into the sea
But
Were burned to nothing
As their fields went up in
Black
Smoke.
And here's the moral of the story: