Three Poems from Linda M. Crate

no place to hide

there are whispers
never said to me,
but of
me;
i know they exist
but i pay them no mind
if you don't give
your soul
to the things you love
nightmares
will consume you
but my fire was built
to destroy
monsters and all their many bones--
i know the masks
they hide behind
pretending they are human
when they are much worse
dishonest
as humanity can be
they know themselves for what they truly are,
but these beasts cannot claim the same;
they say they are forces to be reckoned with
yet always run from their problems
and when provoked with
the unforgiving fury of truth
bury themselves beneath further lies
i will give them no place
to hide.



anxiety weighs me down

sewing together
tapestries of stars
i was born
of the moon and her sun

an immortal of the flame
so many have thought
to throw water
on me,

but the ocean is my sister
and together we
exact lyrics of the most
beautiful revenge

eroding away rocks who
think they will not fall;
i don't know why they seek
to destroy me

perhaps the vibrancy
of my life or light
terrifies them--
my intensity is a frequence

that most don't seem
capable of
fathoming or valuing,
but i don't waste my time

worrying anymore over them;
anxiety always weighs me down
their mountains aren't mine to climb
i have problems of my own.



flower seeking light

they want to play
with my fire
yet without the consequence
of getting burnt,
but that's not playing fair;
just because
life isn't always fair doesn't mean
that i will not be--
and i will burn down
the tongues
of all the nightmares that would
seek to shatter my dreams
too many times
i have been told i am too much
or not enough,
and i tire of all their petty games;
there is no clothing
of their oppression that i will
ever receive
because i am the reality of dreams
those flowers that bloom
and bloom and bloom every year
without dying
because i seek the light
they all deny
exists.





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.  She has five published chapbooks:  A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press -- June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon -- January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January, 2018).