Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

just another relic

disappearing behind the
attic of memories
i dust off the
relic that is you,
and i wish i had left it buried
instead because you are
a painful winter's storm
giving a heart attack to the
newly born spring—
you should be a government official
because like them all you
utter are lies;
you hate bees but we need them
to live, and you don't
support anyone with passion in their
heart or souls
you said that you'd always support me,
but that was just something you
said you didn't mean it—
you ravaged my birds with your lack of
compassion, sent my sunsets fleeing
into the indigo blue of night
sent thunderstorms
pouring in to wash me away in their rains,
but i am no delicate flower
i have my thorns;
and this rose
shot up through the darkness again
rising a phoenix from her ashes
because i am not weak like you always perceived—
still this memory isn't one i want to
remember and so i let it lay
there in the batch of
relics,
you were just a mistake
a person i should have never
met.



you only dragged me down

you sought to put out the light
of the star lanterns flashing
in my eyes,
but my guardian faeries wouldn't let you
they beat away every memory of
you until you didn't remain;
they helped extricate all the hurt from
my soul, told me to forgive
so that i wasn't utterly destroyed by the
darkness that had crested my
shores—
you sought to own me,
but i am not a possession and i would
not be tamed;
you may think you have the best of me,
but that is yet to come—
flying higher without you than i ever did
with you anchored to my side,
and perhaps you think
it cruel of me to say this but you were
a monster
condescending and harsh
so forgive me when i say you deserve this.



washing you away

rain drops
fell upon me as i come
undone, and i find
it washes
away
the pain;
makes me feel
clean, fresh, and new—
as if
i've always known the
laughter of butter cups,
and of
sun star gold or
lilacs dusting the air with
their fragrance;
i feel whole
again without you here
to drag me down in the sea
of ocean waves
suffocating and demanding—
i belong flying free
of sea salted
air profaned by your name
when the ocean has
been purged
of your stain i'll swim with
the mermaids again.