Things were immediately difficult

October 23, 2024 12:15 AM

Despite this thing that we’d done, I found that Jacob and I were both very unromantic people. Surprisingly, we discovered commonality in early nights and orderly mornings; in a practical vision for the future. He was the kind of man, I began to understand, who was unwaveringly loyal. I was charmed by the way he fell asleep – which was constantly – anytime he was horizontal past 7:30pm. Sometimes, after a fight, I would watch the unconscious angles of his face and remember that it was his first time being alive too. from Icarus Also Flew by Ella Fox-Martens [The Fence; ungated]
posted by chavenet (6 comments total)

It’s embarrassing to be 25 and pretend you know anything at all about life. I know less than I did at 15, and certainly less than I did at seven, which is the wisest age.

Heheh.
posted by AlSweigart at 4:57 AM on October 23 [2 favorites]

Awwww!
posted by mittens at 5:08 AM on October 23 [1 favorite]

This is oddly sweet. It reminds me of stories you’ll hear about people’s great-grandparents who got married in weeks or even hours after meeting, often because of immigration or war or—well, a disaster like COVID. Don’t love that she admitted to immigration fraud, though! For her sake, that is. As my dad says, I don’t believe I’d of told that.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:29 AM on October 23 [1 favorite]

The poem referenced in the piece, and the title, is one of my favourites:


Failing and Flying

Jack Gilbert
1925 –2012

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It’s the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
posted by hepta at 7:44 AM on October 23 [20 favorites]

reminds me of Bruegel (as many things do) [wiki]
posted by HearHere at 4:51 PM on October 23 [1 favorite]

Hepta, that’s the right poem at the right time - never knew it, thanks!
posted by mathjus at 5:59 PM on October 23 [2 favorites]