Lynne Ellis

Dream House


We moved in at the end of August. 

Wildfire smoke came over the Cascades,
a little doom fell with the ripe apples. 
Even then, our planet was in danger. 

It was your birthday—absent the harp,
no violin or trumpet sounded. 
A tickseed moon sat abandoned in the window. 

I built a bouquet. We neglected cake 
in favor of the garden harvest. 
We knew we were growing into age, 

no way to count our remaining days. 
It was a prayer we made: 
you crafted every system, I gathered 

every stem. We believed our lives 
would never wither. We believed 
we could blossom forever.

Back to Issue XIII…


Lynne Ellis writes in pen. Their words appear in Poetry Northwest, The Seventh Wave, the North American Review, the Missouri Review, Bracken, and many other beloved journals and anthologies. Winner of the Washburn Prize, the Perkoff Prize, and the Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize, she believes every poem is a collaboration. Read their digital chapbook, "Future Sketchbook," online at Harbor Review. Ellis holds a Certificate in Editing from the University of Washington, serves as a poetry reader at Crab Creek Review, and is Publishing Editor of Tulipwood Books, a developmental-editing press. She wants to work with you.