Linda M. Crate- Two Poems

don't play with fire 

 

you want to play with fire?

it's a good way to

get burned,

but taste my fury if you're

so inclined;

don't say i didn't warn you

you always laughed

when i warned you i had a temper—

you said anything to make

me stay,

but now i'll say anything

so you don't return;

don't need another exorcist 

the first was painful

enough—

you were just a name and a face

i had to lose

just another bridge to burn

while i was still standing on it because i

had to show you i was serious

about goodbye;

you shattered all my happy places 

so i had to find new ones

ones where you couldn't touch me with

all your sickness and disease

you said we're strangers

so don't expect i'll ever say a word to

you again not with my lips—

but my eyes will be burning with all the

fire i wish could consume you.

a woman shining brighter than the sun 

 

we shivered in the tears

of midnight

burned with all the heat of the

sunlight the moon stole,

but you broke me

all the same

until the smell of strangers wounded

me no longer;

it kind-of sounded nice

after everything was said and done

the insincerity and the lies

you were just prince charming leaving me

in the wood and i was cinderella

with her birds—

i won't lie and say i'm always kind

there were times where 

i regretted 

not letting them tear you apart but i refuse

to be a monster like you,

and so i remembered kindness and compassion

forgave you because i needed peace

more than i needed to nurse

a grudge you'd never acknowledge;

you may have knocked me

down

but i've returned to my feet—

there's nothing you can say or do that will

ever stop me,

i am limitless and men like you could never

handle a strong woman like me.