LINDA M. CRATE - POEMS

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015. The second novel of this series Dragons & Magic was published in October 2015. The third of this series Centaurs & Magic is slated for a November release. Her third poetry collection If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications - August 2016) was recently published. Her poetry collection Sing Your Own Song is forthcoming through Barometric Pressures Series.

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                              take my thistle and thorn
 

on the jagged tooth of time
there was but a moment
for you and i,
and i'm glad to be out of the
gilded cage you called love
when it was really
only lust;
my wings could not fly the
latitude and longitude
of my world when i was with you
only the narrow sections of your mind
which is without imagination, depth, or love;
and you touched all my sacred places
without paying the price
because i was too love drunk to charge you
i am a price you could never afford
and never will be able to--
you told me that i had no temper and laughter
rang from your lips when i insisted i did
so now that you've tasted my petals
you can have my thistle and thorn and you cannot
say i didn't warn you.
 
 
                                          immortal flower
 


we all take roads
some a pretty shining coin
others not so much,
and you were one of the latter;
forcing me to dive into the
wreckage of your
broken spirit yet not allowing me
to help you in any way
loathing me for loving you--
we were like the dogwood tree in my parents yard
half living and half dead,
and you were death before your time;
cold, rigid and unbending
unsympathetic to the feelings of others
especially me--
i tasted the coldness of your mantle,
and still yet i bloomed
because i am an eternal flower
one whose petals
will never die.
 
  
                                             slain genesis
 


you were my genesis,
but not my
revelation;
my first but not my end,
and i know you'd like to think
that you were the purest
light that resonated
in my soul;
but you were the deepest darkness
before God spoke,
and you tried to steal away the light from
my heart and soul and eyes;
but i am an universe beyond compare
could never knock me from the clouds or the sea
or earth or fire
because i am a wild thing you'd never control--
you were a fallen angel
like lucifer
believing in yourself and your own power
disappointed when your fashioned arrogance and egotism
could not solve the issue of your greed,
and i'm not sorry that this genesis is over because my world
is brighter and grander and more expensive than you
could afford;
life could not forever dance with death
and so i fly free from the gilded cage of your lust
disguised as love.
 
 
 
                           the man of many masks
 

the wings of pomegranate
clouds lick your sides
with profound bitterness that is
deeper than the depths
of any word you've ever spoken,
and sirens have taken up
residence in your winter blue eyes;
and snow flakes and icicles have overtaken
what was once your heart and soul--
you are winter's prince
never satisified
by anything you cannot claim as yours,
and you weren't impressed that i wouldn't die
to myself for you;
it wasn't enough that i moved away from
all those who had loved me and all i had ever known
the fact that i couldn't take care of you in all the
ways you wanted me to
made you colder and distant than any furious moon--
once you insisted i had no temper,
but i am a child of the moon;
as her daughter i have command over my oceans and i will
not wax and wan into oblivion as i usually do
will let you see the angry eye of my hurricane before i drown
all your hollow hopes and dreams so that you're forced
to face the music and take off your thousand
masks to see your own diseased face.
 
 
 
                                  from rabbit to raven
 
 
there's so few words
to convey
everything
i felt in the moment that i realized
to you i was nothing more
than a roach,
and so i had to be brave and spread my wings
fly into carnelian sunsets full of their warm
pink and gold and scarlet light;
to take my place
with the other ravens and sing my song
despite the fact my aching soul wanted nothing more
than to sleep a thousand years--
we are but shadows
on a gaunt finger of time long past,
and i wish i could forget you
the way that you've forgotten me without blinking
your condescending insincerity and lack of
compassion caught me off guard;
and it's like i told you once
hindsight is twenty twenty
there are times i wish i never met you but through
this profound agony i found my strength
and truths of myself i never would
have otherwise--
in the prison of your heart made of ice
you taught me things
i never wished to know,
but i am no longer the rabbit hearted girl you once knew
trembling and afraid;
i am the battle raven with talons raised
no one will hurt me the way you did ever again
even you will not harm me now.