Poetry from Tessa Ekstrom

Photo: Yuvraj Singh

Trash Castle

I am a creature of the
Heat and your
Galaxy is made of

Sawdust you burned
Down an entire forest
To make room for

Our home, but look,
There’s nothing
To build it with.

I am a creature of the
Silence and you sprinkle
Glass shards in our shoes,

We tap dance blood
Patterns on the pavement
And you ask your mother

To call it art but really,
This hall is a crime
Scene where girls

Like me come to
Watch you slaughter
The sheep that

Help us sleep.
This wasn’t closure
I am made of closure

I am a creature of the
Closure look at how
Closed off I am but

Actually, my body
Is as open as the
Ocean and my hips

Are the river our
Boat was built
To sink on.

I am a creature of
Death by distance
And this was the

Year I wrote letters
Instead of poems
Because I ran

Out of new
Ways to say
.         He
.                 Will
.                          Never
.                                       Love
.                                                  Me.
.

Tessa Ekstrom is a chaotic human doing her best to survive a global pandemic living in Portland, Oregon. Her work has found a home in a handful of literary journals, and she was the featured poet for Volume 2 Issue 1 of Sunspot Literary Journal. She can be found on Instagram @bpdtrashcondo.