Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

never return to me

you ask me
what the hell is wrong with
me,
but perhaps there is nothing
wrong with me;
have you ever considered that?
oh, but i must be mad,
i am the poet; i am the writer
with a thousand voices
in my head—
even if i am
i would be me in a thousand universes
rather than you in one,
and perhaps that is unkind but you are
maddening to my happiness
driving me wild;
you make the monster in me
want to rear her ugly head and rip you to
pieces—
i don't know why it's so hard to see why i keep my distance
clearly i don't want to talk now or ever
so keep your breath
you never wasted it when i needed you to,
and so i can go without it
blow away like an autumn leaf and never return to me
again.



moving on 

sometimes i'm quiet because i don't have anything to say that's tactful. keep provoking me and i will show you just how sharp my tongue can be. i will make a fight with a homunculus look like a treat or even a picnic. you never needed me until now. all those years we didn't say a word to one another have made it perfectly clear and i don't need you now. i don't even miss you. our friendship fell apart and died. once we shimmered like sunlight, but it's become so apparent we were always a clumsy fit like a soul bound to a suit of armor. we had no business being friends because we had nothing in common. we still don't. we were both outcasts, but that's not enough to sew us together anymore. years have grown between us and i let the distance part us. i have no interest in seeing you again. give it up, no longer will i allow you to pull my strings. i have dreams and aspirations of my own. i won't be held back by anyone. especially not you. you always want to live in the past, but my eyes face forward not backward. i am the girl that remembers every scar i've recollected the past enough. it is time for me to move on without you.

just blow away 

if i were dying,

and you were a philospher's stone
i wouldn't use you;
would just crush you in my palms
set the souls free—
there's nothing you can say or do that will
repair the damage you've already done
to me and to this
friendship;
we are dead and we are gone
no longer friends
let alone
sisters—
it is always sad to lose friends
but i'm done crying over
you,
and you can just walk away
because no matter how many times you harass me
or how many times you come to call
i have no interest in talking to
you;
like the dwarf in the flask
all you ever do is demand and demand and demand
i am not giving you all of me
so i can get nothing in return that would just kill
my poor loving heart in the end
i won't die
for someone that won't even jump a puddle for me—
you always mistook my kindness for
weakness so you'll see just how strong i can be
i'll be the iron fists of the northern wall
you will no longer come across
my border.