Trompe-l’œil

Lucy Ton That

We are skating 

at the Parc du Mont-Real 

when you tell me 

that the Burj Khalifa 

puts less pressure 

on the earth 

than a woman

in high heels. 

In a restaurant that week, 

someone will ask 

for the hundredth time 

if we are siblings 

and I will pause 

to touch the hair 

that stiffens at the back 

of your neck 

and say “no.” 

“Watch us teetering 

out on the pond,”

is what I want

to say,

“look closely 

and pay no mind 

that we crop our hair 

the same and talk direct. 

Don’t you see him 

moving out gracefully,

leaving no trace,

no damage  

on the ice, 

like a giant, glittering

Dubai skyscraper? 

Now here I come,

trailing, cutting 

the earth 

with my body.”

Lucy Ton That is a senior English major in Branford College who loves poetry, especially the weird stuff. It is Lucy’s belief that a guilty pleasure is only made more pleasurable by the idea that one is not supposed to like it.

ABOUT THE ART | Let Me Tell You How It Was by Edie Wolfe Lipsey, 2025. Edie Wolfe Lipsey is a student at Yale University.