Fill Me Up, Ancient Cup

~with lavender asters, tickseed, currents steamy with bees,
goldenrod, sweet violet, sage, a cooling breeze

~with riffling fern and monarch mosaic,
deadfall, deep roots, the fertile scent of decay

~with the nighthawk’s cry, fritillary flight,
a whip-poor-will, raven’s feather, a wren’s flitting flutter

~with tiny sprites, a geode’s crystal hollow, echo of frolic
near campfire light, fairy folklore, a gnome’s laughter.

~with ancient journals, cedar breath pressed in the scrawl
of fleeting voices, grandiflorum, the loamy aroma of autumn.

About the Author

Ellen Lager’s work has been published in I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwest Quarterly, Neologism, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, Sheila-Na-Gig, Litbreak, Haunted Waters Press, Halfway Down the Stairs, Sanskrit, Vita Brevis Nature Anthology III, Blue Heron Review, Stirring, Thresholds Magazine, Encore, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Ellen received both a bachelor of science and a master of education from the University of Minnesota.