U n k n o w n   B e a u t y

                By: Xaniyah Sanders

I saw an angel fly

Her wings like diamonds cutting through the clouds

She was looking in a mirror, admiring her beauty I assume.

Though as I looked closer, I could see the fire in her eyes. The hurt etched into her face, the betrayal in the tears swimming around in her eyes.

How could something so beautiful, so strong, so powerful as her, look as though it’s taking everything in her to not fall. Fall to the realms of reality. I can tell she doesn’t want to go back, I don’t want her to go back. It looks as if whatever she has been through has ruined her. I can see it in the way she looks at herself. Even though she is an angel, she still sees every flaw, every insecurity, everything wrong with her. I look to her wings, shining with pride as they hold her up in the sky… away from everything she fears. As I look closer, I see that the diamonds are shaped like tears. Every teardrop is every problem, every boy, every person, everything she has ever cried over.

I look the angel over once more, afraid that when she leaves, I will forget she came. I take in her beauty and try to burn it into my brain, though something seems kind of odd. She looks at me in the mirror, and it almost seems as if she sees me… she does see me. She mouths something, something like “look down”

Why would she tell me this? I look around, then back to the mirror. Knowing tears flow freely down my face. I look down and the realization hits… I am that angel.