Linda M. Crate- Two Poems

don't put me on a pedestal 

you insisted i shouldn't 
put you on a pedestal,
but expected me
to sit on mine
perfectly refined and docile
as a proper lady ought;
but i am wild
never have i ever been able to sit still
always sitting on the precipice 
of a moment i've been
awaiting
without knowing what or who it is
to expect
burning with the passion and heat of stars—
a wild raven whose wings
you clipped
as you shoved me in your gilded cage
until a moment you thought you
could devour,
but i refused to die because there's still much
for me to accomplish;
just because your dreams are dead and dying and distant
doesn't mean we should all suffer for them.



dead moon

you are a dead moon
distant and cold
selfish and cruel
wishing to swallow away
all the light
perhaps nehelenia is your
sister and you used to 
love mirrors together
until the image
was broken,
and you realized the monster
you'd become;
i have never been afraid of the moon
for i am a moon child,
but i do not care much for your moon
because it doesn't dance kind
as it ought to
because even the heart of night 
should be kind.