TartBot
I wanted the boy to like me so I made him
a robot. body a Pop-Tart box head a box of
cupcake papers carefully layered with
strips of tissue smoothed by the fingers
to remove the ridges of excess flour glue. hours
to dry then coated silver with a painter’s
sponge no brushstrokes just the muted
swirl of glitter too fine to look wrong on a boy
robot because what could it be but a boy. again
drying and cutting so precisely with the X-ACTO
to make sure the head opened some interior
space that could be filled with I didn’t know
what except it needed a hatch needed a space
it could fill. and after that I never gave it to him too
afraid of what a papier-mâché robot with an open-
able head might say for itself all silver glitter swirl
and not smooth lines. but neither did I throw it
out instead sat it on the window ledge
in front of the framed photo of me with my
brother left it there in the way. I haven’t seen
my face in almost a year and the robot never had one.
Mary Coons is an Illinois native currently completing an MFA in creative writing at University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her work has previously appeared in The Golden Key.
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