Poetry by Ella Rous

                 ​Tristan Loper CC



a litany of desire


The harvest moon has its teeth 

in me, but I want Ouija, I want Salem, I want skin 

closing on mine like the summer’s 

peak. I want tarot readings until the past 

comes undone and I want death 

upside down. Sideways. I want better 

stories: ones where I get through 

to you. I’m trying to get through to you, 

like a body in the water or a hand

passing through a mirror over and over 

again, but no gold mine or perennial. 

Give me the ocean so I may drown 

with my mouth forever closing, like holding

godhood or smashing the eggshell sky 

on a plate. Little bits of stars raining 

everywhere. I want twin souls and solstice 

and the blood forging us from pain 

and I want your laugh fading into the dusk.

I want you back, baby. Forget it.



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Ella Rous (she/her) is a first-year student currently attending the University of Texas at Austin as a Plan II and psychology double major. Though her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal, Red Lemon Review, and Sledgehammer, she is best known for being vocally queer and for her zebra patterned platform crocs. Her twitter handle is @creatingella.
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