white king
it's the end
of an
empire
i am white hot flames
burning galaxies
in my wake
won't listen to any cries for
mercy
because i'm done asking
permission to be
myself
when it is both my power and my
gift,
and these white hot flames
will kiss the knees of my enemies until
they're nothing but ash;
i refuse to
give the forgiveness they refused to all those
who they killed in their wake
i will avenge the dead
because their names deserve to be
remembered
by more than a tombstone and a family member—
i am the king in my kingdom
don't fear your crown nor power because i have
a strength all my own.
may her truth break you
you never hid beneath
a gauze of transparency
so i suppose you wouldn't
be honest about something
so serious as this
you were cheating on me before
we broke up,
and you married the swine of a
woman who had the gall
to go after a taken
man;
i suppose i should have read between
the lines when you told me even if
i had been pregnant you wouldn't have
stayed;
but i loved you too much—
left me buried beneath the ice with your
other blue lipped angels,
but i refused to die;
and so you resented me
it's okay now i loathe you too;
you're just the haunting ghost of memories
i wish i could get out—
you'd say i was just on a witch hunt,
but that's an insult to witches;
so love and light and blessed be
because karma will punch you harder than i
ever could and may her truth break you
as you broke me.
she woke me
i loved her,
and it scard me;
because i had only ever
loved men,
and she said it strange
despite the fact how many of them
had hurt me;
and i couldn't say why i liked men
only that i did
then she came along and splintered everything
i knew of truth and my perspective
shifted—
she's the only woman i've ever loved,
but i never had the courage to say for i knew
someone like her would never love
a broken person like me
despite the fact she found scars were beautiful
my anger was an egregious character flaw
that drove her away;
and i wish we could be reconciled as i constantly dream
we are
just to be her friend again would be a blessing
even if she's a gift that i don't
deserve—
she was otherworldly to me
a faerie dancing into my path and enchanting me with
her unique world views, her beauty, and her laughter;
she was kind but cruel, sharp yet soft, and every shade of
perfection i have ever known
always smelled of roses and broke open the shell of my timidity
so i could remember to be a brave warrior as i always
knew i was
since childhood.
Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015. The second novel of this series Dragons & Magic was published in October 2015. The third of this series Centaurs & Magic was published November 2016. Her third poetry collection If Tomorrow Never Comes(Scars Publications - August 2016) was recently published. Her poetry collection Sing Your Own Song is forthcoming through Barometric Pressures Series.