by Linda M. Crate
so long i have seen myself
through the dirty lens
of your eyes,
but i am not not the villain
you made me out to be;
and you are no victor or victim
just an insincere devil untrue
masquerading as an angel
perhaps you miss heaven
but you’ve fallen—
you lamented once you used to know
what people wanted,
but i think you forgot your soul
was gone along the way;
an empty soul grasps for any light it can find
like a parasite you tried to steal mine
and when you found you couldn’t
killed who i was—
i’ve risen again upon the immortal wings
of the phoenix
i am the moon daughter
she would never let me die and you could never
let me live,
and so here i stand freed of your emptiness;
yet i feel a prisoner to all the lies you told me
every empty promise feels like a tether and chain
dragging me into the darkness—
but i refuse to believe all the lies you told me about me
i am stronger and more beautiful than you’ll ever know.
Linda M. Crate‘s poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has five published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press, June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon, January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), and one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018).
(And don’t forget to check out Linda’s poem sometimes ravens conquer wolves. – Elephants Never)