Heaven Sent
by Miceala Morano
the ambulance beacon bruises the sidewalk
blue as it flies around the corner.
your foot smacks the brake like a mother’s hand
reprimanding her child, slow down.
you don’t want slow, you want to be one of the angelic girls
at the mall, tank tops glittering on bird bones.
you want spaghetti straps, upper thigh, broken
dress codes, morals scattered like beads across the tile
unstrung by visions of flight, you want
to see bone, glossy like porcelain,
stomach flat like paper, graphing the dimensions of thinness.
your teeth decayed by diet coke, unfurling,
blooming in the night. at the mall, you ascend
to heaven, heels clicking against the elevator step
like knees hitting the floor to pray. heaven
is on the second floor, shrouded in holy light,
soft cotton and shimmering pearls cradling pale skin.
to be empty is to be open, the prophet says,
standing at the counter in size 00, smacking gum.
she tells you food court salad has too many calories
that water will carry your body, afloat,
ribcage jutting to heaven like the ark.
In your hands, too-small jeans, beads like rosaries
to adorn your collarbones, weightlessness
as worship, the crop top reading heaven sent.
that night, you go 90 in a 60, the branches
of your arms reaching for sky, shadowed
by the pale moon. when the car flips,
change spills from the cupholder like a tithe,
diet coke staining the seats. you dream
of angels, scapulas poking like wings from sinew.
see: girl, undone. they’ll find your body
laid across the hood of the car, small and pale,
blood slick, shining in headlights. they’ll find
you, still dreaming of angels.
Miceala Morano is an emerging writer whose work is published or forthcoming in Paper Crane Journal, Ice Lolly Review, Intersections Mag, Cathartic Lit, and more. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and she was recently named a Foyle Commended Poet by the Poetry Society of the UK, as well as Arkansas Scholastic Press Association's 2021 Literary Magazine Writer of the Year. She is the co-editor-in-chief of Footnotes and a submission reader for The Young Writers Initiative.