The Shipwreck, Claude-Joseph Vernet
Sturm Und Drang
Poetry by EllerySuddenly, the world was
a beautiful window
that no one was ever
on the other side of.
I chose sturm und drang
over your compassion, like
when I was driving with mom
& she said I don’t want to be weak
and in pain. So
I pushed my hand through
the pane of glass, so
I felt you everywhere after
I left. I felt you were mad at me,
& I was loved only for how
I made you feel. I made you feel
bad on purpose. Ellie told me
the east side of Berlin was best.
You’ll never see it.
I noticed beautiful girls all over
were on their phones. I apologized
to them for being too soft,
for letting myself
be pressed up against
a log
like a leaf.
Crete
One spring, he was there,
so was I.
islands laid on the sea
like birds that had
died on their backs
paintings slid down walls.
all I thought was love
was stripped from love, and
I wanted to find
a corner of the scene
to peel away
so I could settle upon
some truth. I wrote
around him, in the
empty space where English
could squirm
like a dog in the mud.
Ellery Pridgen is a writer and artist from the Pacific Northwest. Her work has appeared in the Closed Eye Open, Coffin Bell, Outcrop, Paloma, and other publications. She writes a weekly Substack newsletter called A Broad.