Monday, November 23, 2015

Linda M. Crate- Three Poems


phoenix: rebirth 
 
you can have all your pomegranates back
i will never be your persephone
pomegranates have always been too bitter
for me
just like you,
and i promised myself i would not be vulnerable
to your charm but only once;
so you can bite back
those insincere
apologies
no matter how much breath you waste 
i won't become your lily
for you could never be my james—
there's only one person you can blame for my absence:
you and you alone
for you drove me away with the fangs of wolves,
and the salt of cruel words pressed
into every open scar
still healing;
you can't have me back for you stole away every star
in my eyes and made me wander in darkness
for many a night—
eventually the moon and stars and sun and flowers
all conspired with birdsong and wolves
to sew me back together, to scatter the parts of you that
wounded me like frightened birds
so they could be devoured 
by oblivion;
i reinvented myself from nothing, rose from my ashes
became a phoenix and so no i will not return
to your gilded cage—
come for me and you will burn in the flames
of this chaos i wear so well.



give these moments back 
 
you can keep the pots and pans
just give me these moments
back
they were never yours,
and you can keep the memories;
i don't want to remember
them anymore
just give me my moments back
that's all i ask—
i will find my way out of here
just give me these 
moments back,
and i wish i could forget the first time
we kissed
you strangled with the fingers of the narcissist king you are
instead of the white knight you pretend to be;
just give me the moments back
i will recreate a new future
for you see
i am the king of my own kingdom
there's no need for you
in my life
so give me these moments back
because i will not succumb to the bitterness of your
pomegranates—
give me these moments back
or i will use all the fire i've regained and relearned to burn
through you until even there are no ashes left:
give me back these moments
they are mine.
 
 

a wild animal 
 
you say you're only human
when you make mistakes,
but you won't forgive mine no matter how
many times i forgive and forgave
you;
so i decided that i will shed these petals
only cut you on a thousand of
my thorns
i don't want your apologies 
just want to be left
alone—
everyone tells me that i'm pretty,
but they don't care to see
my naked soul;
and you are the same way because all you
want to do is take from me without
giving any value,
and i have no time to waste on fair weather
friends;
i don't want you so just go away—
don't worry
i've always been a misfit
where the shadows form grins and the moon silver
sings to wolves that is my niche,
and i will glow bright
for any outsider that wishes to join me
because we are strong yet sometimes we get lonely;
but not for the company of people
like you who are always offended or misunderstanding
the things we say
almost as if on purpose—
your gilded cage couldn't interest me if it were the prettiest
thing on earth for i am meant to fly and soar beneath the
clouds
i am a wild animal
you could never cage me.
 
 

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