Ellery Beck

Bight

Let yourself lay           still, fabric
stretched          around frame, a fresh
canvas. You are familiar

with the gentle            sting
of the brush, how the bristles
scrape color over                    you. Let the pigment 

rest, thin          sheets, each shade warm
against your skin. Your body—the fields
sculpted of gently       positioned flowers, the soft

blue                 of sky left behind. Lay            still
a little longer. The mountains rest
across you, my fingers            trace

the valleys. Let me     stay here,
still, even        as this landscape leaves
your skin.

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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.