A pre-k art teacher ruminates on her situationship while laying out today’s activity

anyone can make you feel cute after you fuck
shoulder kisses and ‘you’re so beautiful’s
don’t mean much when i’m not sure where we stand
you can ‘i really like you’ me to an empty death
reeking of plasticine and manufactured affection

let me papier-mache together these fantasies
and hopes and dreams
they’re nothing but ribbons of paper
nothing to hold on to—
love is just a watercolor mirage
a mod-podge of dopamine and lust

i am supported by nothing but pipe-cleaners
teeter tottering on earthquake pins
caught in a knot of yarn and careless words
what’s a downy touch when there’s nothing behind it

i wish i could separate all of this shimmer and glue—
parse out truth from the felt stickers
remove this gold glitter gilding
expose the cardboard soul behind it—
the popsicle stick skeleton of us laid bare

because anyone can make you feel cute after you fuck
but will they still be there
when the cotton ball cloud of passion
is thrown out with yesterday’s scissor scraps and muddy paint water

Isabel Cruz is a Puerto Rican poet from Paterson, New Jersey. She has earned a B.A. in American Studies and English: Creative Writing with a Concentration in Poetry from Smith College. She was awarded the 2024 Elizabeth Babcock Prize for Best Poem. Her poems have been published in The Poetry Society of New York’s Milk Press Books 2023 Summer Edition. Cruz has been a featured poet in venues such as The Dodge Poetry Festival, The New York Poetry Festival, and in 2023 she was named the Inaugural Youth Poetry Ambassador for the Paterson Poetry Festival.