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It is 8:00 PM on a Saturday night. I am released from jail but still
in the total mania with which I entered prison one week earlier. My
clothes and possession have been given back to me. I am turned loose
on the sidewalk outside of the Hall of Justice. I have no shoes. My
telephone has been turned off and all of the numbers in it erased. I
have no money. I do not know who I am. I remove the California ID
from the wallet in my possession. I recognize the face, the name,
the address. It is Him. The one who lost. The one who failed. The
one who fell. I must take us home.
Words... A prayer from prison. A verse I memorized: Lord grant me the strength to accept what I cannot change,Too long. Too difficult. Repeat only that which is needed: Strength. Courage. Wisdom.I walk home. I have fallen. All is in ruin. My sancturary has been taken from me. My privacy has been taken from me. My dignity has been taken from me. My identitity has been taken from me. I am no one. I have never been. I shall never be. I am not. I have no name. I am Icarus. I have flown too close to the sun. My wings are destroyed and now I fall. I fall from glory, from pride, from hope. My feathers flutter downward around me. The wax that held them to me drips in molten streams down my still outstretched arms as I fall. I fall back toward the labyrinth from which we escaped that now rushes up toward me. He has failed us and now we fall into darkness. But I shall save us. I shall return us to hope. I will fly again. I am Icarus. I am Falling Man. |
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But why not crashing man,
or broken man, or lost man, or lonely man,
or paranoid man, or alien man?
People don't usually think of the fall itself but rather the consequences thereof. I have not hit, but see Crete's cold labyrinth rushing towards me with the finality of stone. |
Flying Man Fragile Man Female Man Feminine Man Feline Man Feeling Man Fucking Man Funny Man Foolish Man Failing Man Falling Man |