Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

in pursuit of truth 

 

everyone tells me

that i am strange as if that's the 

worst insult you can 

fling,

but i still dive into the wreck

into the me and she and he and all the blues

and greens and blacks;

i prefer the golden scarlet carnelian kisses of

sunsets burning against my flesh

and dancing in my hair,

but sometimes just sometimes

i embrace the darkness and the void

they always want the sunshine but i revel in the rain

washing against my skin as i descend the ladder

and leap into the inky waters of 

transformation—

maudlin faces greet me beyond the surface and so i 

dig deeper

because there is always something more

than what is anticipated

i find peace in the eyes of dead ships and mermaid fins

to see the light kiss the water

like a lover,

and i wonder if the moon is jealous of the sea

so she crashes her angrily against the rocks out of mere

jealousy and spite because she knows the sun

has been untrue;

no one joins me on these voyages

they are too wild for them to reckon but i have always been

sitting on the teeth of the most ferocious eloquency

ready to cut into the truth.

wicked wolf 

 

bones are heavy to carry

i refuse to remember

yours

it would serve no purpose

except to make me cry,

and i've already

have birthed enough rivers of grief

into existence in the vanity

that is your name;

nothing i could say or do would make

you love me the way i loved you

because you never did even

care not even a little bit

you don't destroy people you love—

all you ever offered me

were the silences that cut my heart

i gave you all of me and carried your bones

so many moons simply so you could shrug mine off

like snakeskin and bite into my throat

with fangs 

so merciless even a vampire would cringe

before using them,

you are the most profound monster;

even other monsters wouldn't rip scars so deep as you—

remember the bad guy always dies in the

novel and in the movie and in life

they say the good die young but sometimes so do the

wicked,

and i hope for once life is fair

makes you lose faith in a love you never believed in

as she rips you petal from petal so none of the

roses you have stolen are yours.

forgetting your name 

 

i'll color the roses

scarlet

with your blood,

and paint the moon in the silver

of your soul;

will rip you apart and feed your

bones to the wolves

you claim are your fathers—

i'll let the carrion

feast upon your flesh for ravens are

my brothers and crows my

cousins,

and your mocking lips shall fall into

silence;

no longer shall anyone hear

the song of the

mocking jay and the world will sleep more

restful knowing one monster has

been slain because

i am a monster slayer 

capable of tying her own corset and everything

my heels will be at your throat

you'll see the fury in my eyes you always

denied was there—

i will burn you in the fires of your own lust

until you can stand no more,

and watch as the universe forgets

your name.