_“Icarus flew."_

That’s how the old myth ends.

Soft, inevitable, a caution passed between void and star.

Fingers trailing through the thin blue veil of dawn,

brushing constellations still half-asleep in their orbits.

Blazing not just above, _around_, molten heart an altar no mortal meant to approach.

Yet he came anyway.

Not because he sought destruction;

divinity simply demands sacrific...

A crow preens its feathers. Each one a glossy, dark-mirror shine glinting like wet ink in sunlight. Fluffy down flies away from him— caught-and-released by a sudden wind.

I watch from my jar, surface clouded as the water darkens with dust. It’s hard to see him nowadays. His sleek silhouette blurred behind a curtain of filth, a barrier between me and the only other living creature trapped in this ...

I’m finally able to breathe.  

Mint lingers on my tongue, sharp and cool— mixed with the sweetness of frosting, the faint burn of liquor still rushing in my veins. My skin hums, clammy and alive, every inch aware. I feel the warmth of every breath ghosting over my cheeks.  

Goosebumps rise in places I didn’t know could tremble. In the hollow behind my knees, along the curve of my spine, like my b...