by Linda M. Crate
you think only
werewolves
know metamorphosis?
you think only
werewolves
know the moon?
she is my kin,
my mother,
to be specific;
the night is when i feel
most alive—
you buried me during
the day when i was still sleeping
like the coward you were,
but i woke up;
and i broke out of that coffin
leaving earth and your name behind me—
reclaimed both my voice and my power,
learned my magic once more;
put myself back together
remembered that i was a force to be reckoned with
and i reconciled with my darkness knowing
it will always be there along with my light—
not afraid of who i am anymore
with this new power
the damphyr claims back her crown,
in this kingdom i am the queen;
and you will surrender your life beneath
the trees of the past and move no more.
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 six 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), splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), more than bone music (Clare Songbirds Publishing, March 2019), 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 you can tell me i’m wrong. – Elephants Never)