Ergita Sela

You bought us a paper cone
of strawberry cotton candy

and we ate until our fingers
stuck together,

welded into a sculpture
of sugary pink glue.

And I tried not to notice
the rising ache in my stomach

or how you rocked us
back and forth

on the ferris wheel
or how you leaned in for a kiss

while I grasped the edges
of our little metal coffin

and prayed with my faithless heart
for solid ground.

But when we landed at last
and I stood shakily by your side,

I began to wonder
if perhaps

you were not someone
I wanted to be glued to,

even with something as sweet
as spun strawberry sugar.

Emily Uduwana is a poet and short fiction author with recent publications in Miracle Monocle, Rubbertop Review, and the Owen Wister Review. She is currently based in Southern California, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in American history.