Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

humans, remember yourselves as children not monsters 

 

once we were children of the earth

now we're parasites

leeching from her everything

killing her, killing us;

but all some seem to care about is a piece

of paper that is easily burned

i won't stand in the

funeral pyres of the shadows of years past

destroy this earth and i will defend

her

money is only the basis of greed and corruption

i wish it didn't exist at all

wish that people could feed themselves without having

to worry about all the bills

wish they could

drink from wild waters without having to fear pollution

or disease—

i dreamed once that i saved an emperor from 

dying in a past life,

and once i dreamed that i killed monsters

to save children and give them 

back to their mothers,

once i dreamed of a corrupt church caught in the flames of

their greed,

and another time i dreamed of a betrayer

that tried to betray me

someone i thought of as a friend;

this earth is dying

i won't let the humans kill it

will shed this flesh become one with my spirit

burn brighter than the sun

free the world

of your corruption.

girl on fire  

 

you want to set me on fire

be my guest

i will rise again from

the flames

some people dance with fire,

but i am built from it;

the sun and stars and moon

wove me together in 

the summer 

months

the temperature is never too hot

for me to able to withstand

so go ahead

with your light me afire

i'll set your forest

ablaze—

i burn with a fiery passion that not 

even the galaxy could contain its why

i fell to earth from the stars

because i am meant

to change it,

and i will not bend to the selfish desires

of greed and lust

nor shall you manipulate me any 

longer

i am no one's puppet

go ahead and pull the strings i cut them

when you stabbed me in the back;

i am going to change the 

world—

so you don't want to get burned?

get out of my way,

fools like you could never understand.

we all matter 

 

i wish the rich

could feel

the heat of the poor

feel their heart beats as they

are forced to make

decisions that break them

heavily,

and crush any desires of hopes and dreams

i hate to see the lifelessness in the eyes

of those who have given up

already

the real living dead that you'll never see

on amv;

heartache and struggles

still they endure

but their eyes sing to me of pain and dismay—

why do the rich deserve to be rich

if they do not help their fellow

men,

how many yachts can one man possibly own

before it's enough to satiate the

open maw of ever continuing greed?

i want to punch holes

through every injustice in this world

help everyone who is suffering

because we are all connected and i don't see how

anyone can sleep so well at night

knowing that they didn't do anything to help

anyone,

but i forget not everyone has my heart

not everyone understands my empathetic spirit;

just want to make the people who are numb feel and those

with eyes tightly shut to be forced to see: we all matter.