Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

let me always a dreamer be

i'm going to get lost in
the smile of
a sunset
let all these worries of work
and money
incinerate in the gaze of the sun
because the most important
things in life come for
free:
love, friendship, and laughter—
there may not be any
happily ever afters
devoid of
tears and misunderstandings and confusion
pain and agony,
but there is happiness and that is
enough for me;
don't want to be the woman too immersed
in work that life just passes me by
want to always be the
poet and writer and photographer that
sees beauty where
others cannot
the one who sees dandelions and thinks
of wishes not weeds,
the girl that loves and loves and loves and
shines when others have lost their light
the girl that once said
she'd be a mermaid.




i want to heal

deep inside my soul
there's this need to heal the world
i don't know how to go about it
other than love
because it's the most powerful cure
of all,
and it can erase past wrongs
destroy hatred
faster than a gargoyle's wing eroded by
the elements;
but i want to do more
than these flimsy means of income give me
want to be the wings
that make dreams come true—
i was always a dreamer,
and i want my dreams to live so i want to help
every dreamer who has something to be
able to achieve;
perhaps, i'm asking too much
for while i cannot help them all i can help
some of them
that should be enough for me
yet i'm like ariel
i want more
than what i can achieve with these two legs
want to touch the world with love that
forever heals
all these long suffering wounds
salted and bleeding.




reluctant obedience

i have this dream often
standing by the
ocean,
walking with a woman with
short blonde hair
hand-in-hand;
i am a child trying to pull away
to my independence,
she anchors
me to the shore and insists
i walk forward
but isn't cruel about it just motherly
acquiescing to her request
i stay toward the shore
though my heart
is elsewhere in the blue-green sea
the color of her eyes,
and a mermaid waves at me—
i remember waving back,
but this is when i wake up every time
is this an omen or a deep yearning?
do i belong to the ocean
or am i trapped on land merely
dreaming of an ocean wave?
i wish i knew,
but life can be so confusing;
and it never comes
with a manual
so i will forge my own path and see if
it leads me to the sea and the
mermaids,
something tells me it will.