Ellery Beck

Augmented Pastoral

There’s the sky, a sinking blue—a can’t-breath, bottom-
of-the-ocean shade—so shiny it must’ve been built
up there, cautiously coded blue-by-blue

pixel. There’s a branch, molded silicone
against sun; there’s the plastic leaves shimmering
in the wind. Watch—there’s the program

that carries opaque clouds across sky, blue
light seeping through, a uniform
drift across our static landscape. Watch the autonomous 

birds, flapping their wings in loops, each following
its script. Didn’t you want this careful reconstruction
of the skyline, one you could pause and repeat?

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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.