Ellery Beck

In Winter, We Tried to Write

It’s November and I’m writing us into snow that hasn’t fallen
yet. There’s a pile of leaves from last year that the earth still 

hasn’t managed to finish eating; I stare at them instead of your fingertips
growing towards me. Here’s the thing about corrosion: it creeps 

in when you’re comfortable. I told you I’d rather skip
December and you told me to stay stuck with you, to stay still 

here in the cold. The seasons come, the months brush
against us, the wind sounds familiar as it burns us. We have no 

control over the weather wearing against us. We’re watching
different versions of ourselves attempt to translate this cold 

into words. We’re watching as the eraser takes control,
as snow begins to swallow itself.

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Ellery Beck is a graduate of Salisbury University with a BA in Creative Writing. They have poems published or forthcoming in Passages North, Colorado Review, Atlanta Review, Sugar House Review, New Delta Review and elsewhere. Ellery is also one of the co-founders of Beaver Magazine as well as a reader for Poet Lore.