how to fly close to the sun by Rhea Brennan (15, USA)

first
note that your wings are too heavy to fly, birds learn this when their mother
throws them by the ankles,
their mother is praised for mercy
their father never has to know
their brother don't have time to notice
a corpse whose veins runs the same blood, their wings are too light
too light to carry the weight of love and loved, they shed and shed until

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second
peer into the sun,
follow the map trapped beneath a thin layer of skin allow the raw daylight to soak in pupils
and ring until color runs dry
don't stop here, never stop
until you arms glide through changing colors littered with splattered clouds
and maybe, if you follow the trail,
It will all be over.
third
consider that suffocation only works
on mouths that once breathed with ease and the buried can't die twice.
fourth
remember that the devil was once a fallen angel.
you learned this when you first asked why good people do bad things and why bad people dont change
that there is no difference between sincerity and pity because in the end they all were born from in the need to soar
fifth
know how many marks in the topography of your skin you can take before you will rise
from rocky terrain and lift your chin so high
you can feel the burnt kiss of the sun
flood into crisped skin
sixth
memorize this; you will never own a shadow once you take flight, no, your shadow will be passed down like a folk song into the hands of the one who love, loved you
you will be too high among stars to see the layered crevices of your children, you will just see faint outlines
even then, remember that outlines can fall
through opened palms.
seventh
know that scars heal.
the lines that spell whispers across your chest aren't self fulfilling prophecies
eighth
recognize that you are not a god and even an angel can fall from enlightenment and that good people do bad things. recognize that clouds can cover skin
if cuts are still bleeding,
and know that flight is’t an arrow
you can throw like shade
and expect that you will soar.
know that you have flown long before without air pushing your skin skyward
that “over” isnt salvation that salvation isn't over. 

​Rhea Brennan is a fifteen-year-old writer living in Houston, Texas. She attends Kinder HSPVA for creative writing where she specializes in poetry and realistic fiction. She spends her free time at an art studio and listening to the lyrics of Taylor Swift.