but i believe in heaven. in tasting honeyed ambrosia like salvation,
swallowing flower wine & calling it my second coming. & no i
might not believe in angels but i believe in immortality. mortals:
we love to the moon & back. & i don’t crave love but eternity, a haven
where there is no dead or living but eternal interlude. we sleep
to a mortal earth where sunflowers wither & i reincarnate with spring
showers, to the clouds & back again. if the sky is the promised land
then i drink its tears like holy water & still cry my own in earthly sins.
& no i might not believe in divinity but i believe i am a daughter
of the sun. that i am sun-kissed in ethereal shades & it’s like, remember
icarus, his giddiness in this euphoria of a flight? daydreams: how they
kindle naivety like a flame & dawn: i am sugared candle wax & canary
feathers, i fly too close to the sun & burn to embers in its rays until
there is nothing & everything of a girl who told white lies to herself
that no, she wasn’t greedy. & from my throat, golden rebirth.

Kayleigh Sim is a Southeast Asian writer living in San Diego, California, and is currently a Senior Editor for Polyphony Lit. Kayleigh is a rising high school senior and will graduate in 2022. She is especially in love with flowers, the moon, and the stars. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Trouvaille Review, Cathartic Lit, Intersections Magazine, Poetically Magazine, Second Chance Lit, Interstellar Lit, Aster Lit, and elsewhere