Linda M. Crate- Three Poems

no more ghosts

i used to be haunted by the past
let it cripple my future
all too consumed
by the mistakes
i made,
but you taught me
that sometimes you have to let go
in order to gain;
it was only when i succumbed to the thought
you were gone that i found
happiness again
my novel was published,
and i don't know if i would have pushed myself
half as hard as i did
if i kept chasing after the carrots you hung
so minute and small;
doesn't mean that you were right in what you did
or i'll ever condone it
but i forgive it because it had to happen
so i could grow—
doesn't mean that sometimes i still don't hate you
for it, that sometimes i would love to knock
your teeth down your throat
for profaning the name of love with lust;
but i'm a bigger person than that
so i go my way
happy to be free of your gilded cage and your tortured
soul so egocentric and cruel.



the perfect prescription

you're a liar
and a fool,
but one day you'll get your
comeuppance for all the
flowers you stole;
one day you'll dance on the daggers
edge you shoved me through
and she'll leave you bleeding
the way you did me
maybe then your laughter will die before
it reaches your throat—
you're a parasite,
and i thought no medication would cure
me of all your ills;
but it seems the perfect prescription
was found in sunshine, driving hard to follow my dreams,
and in letting go.



you're not strong

when i was poor
you left me laying on the ground
when i was starving
you offered no food,
but when i had my flowers
you had no problem
without hesitation you took them all;
it's not something i can get back,
and i know you think
i'm still mournful of my one-sided unrequited love
that you only ever returned to me in lust;
but i am older and wiser now—
i will not be vulnerable to you twice
should you come around here
again
i will feed you with every morsel of glass you
shoved down my throat, with every
illusion you insisted was truth;
with all the ambrosia i coughed up for the gods
because it was untrue
all of this will be your glory—
i had to rise from my ashes once more
to die to who i was and become a stronger flame
it's only fair that you should have to do
the same,
but something tells me you're not strong
enough.