By Katie Manning

On the night we met, my father gave me Icarus
and a latte. I was made of questions and wore
my mother’s face, ten years older than she’d 
been when he saw her last, the day he’d told her
he was going to marry someone else. The legend
goes that on the day he held my newborn body,
I cried until he handed me back to my mom, as if 
somehow I already knew. But on the last night 
of my twenties, I met my father at a coffee shop,
and he gave me a birthday present for the first 
time. Icarus was made of repurposed steel. He
glowed copper-green in the café light. My father
made him from four steel pieces that curve up
like a double helix from a flat Earth base, metal
wings spread wide near the top beside a silver
sun. I don’t remember any words my father said
that night. Now I often think of him—Icarus—
on early mornings when I walk at the beach 
and watch the surfers glide across the waves, 
shining in black suits. It’s that last moment, body 
and board tossed into the sky, sudden flight—
and then—wings askew, legs last to disappear. 
He’s gone again. This morning though, I noticed 
one surfer with longer hair and curves, the only 
body in the water that looked at all like mine. 
I watched for the final flight, the fall, but no—
she outrode the wave, stepped into the shallows, 
and walked away.

First published in The Lascaux Review.

The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process

I believe the arts and humanities make us human. They offer opportunities for empathy and for seeing the world in ways we couldn't possibly in our own time/place/body, and they also offer opportunities for us to find ourselves in other people's experiences and to feel less alone.I was thinking a lot about the relationship between art and the artist. Although I have a fraught relationship with my biological father and am no longer in contact with him, I still value the art he made and gave to me as a gift.I love walking along the beach and staring out at the ocean, which makes me and my problems feel very small in the best way. I don't want to lose the shoreline. I want my future grandkids and great grandkids to be able to experience the coast as I have.

Katie Manning is a poet, professor, and parent, but not necessarily in that order. She's the author of eight poetry collections, including Tasty Other, which won the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award and was featured on Poetry Unbound. She enjoys beaches, books, board games, brownies, and alliteration.