Five Poems by Linda M. Crate

 

constant sigh of darkness

  

i need more 

time in the forest, 

 

i recall when i danced in 

the creek and the crows 

joined in my dance as they 

flew overhead singing their strange, 

beautiful song as slants of  

sunlight fell through the trees; 

 

and i need to feel the joy and laughter 

of moments such as these— 

 

life can be heavy  

as a stone, 

but i need the light whispers 

of feathers to dance across 

my heart; 

 

because i don't need to know a  

constant sigh of darkness. 

 

 

a love without end

  

sometimes i wander 

into the forest 

of me and you, 

 

it is a dangerous place 

to wander full of what-if's 

and should haves; 

 

but sometimes my feet 

carry me there before  

my mind can think to  

stop me— 

 

eternity without you seems 

longer than the slight eternity 

i spent with you, 

 

many moons part us; 

 

you were the brightest sun 

to dance across my sky waking 

in me magic when i thought my 

heart had long since dried up of  

any dreams— 

 

so sometimes i put my hand  

into a place i'm not sure ever existed, 

and you take my hand and we dance 

like aragorn and arwen; 

 

rosefinch and raven: a love without end.

 

 

 

my pink sunset

  

in another universe 

we're wives, 

and you are my sun and  

i am your moon; 

 

as we walk through the  

forest your rosefinches come 

to greet you as my ravens 

fly above us and together 

the songs of these two birds 

creates a rainbow of music 

so lovely that no one could deny 

the love was true— 

 

here the what-if's and should haves 

don't get in the way of you & i, 

 

here i've known you and loved  

you longer than all the years i have 

come to miss you in this universe; 

 

and i reach my hand out in my dreams 

so you can hold me there because sometimes 

i need the gentle reassurance of my pink 

sunset to get me through. 

 

 

 

maybe you'll come 

 

sometimes i wonder 

if we look at the same moon 

or the same sun or the same sky, 

 

when i wander through the 

forest i cannot help but think of the fae 

that enchanted my heart so i could 

know the music of magic once more; 

 

and i smile thinking of you 

even still— 

 

because this love 

i had for you 

has never died, 

and so it doesn't make sense 

to bury it; 

 

for every living thing deserves a chance— 

 

so i will let the moonlight of my heart 

dance and flutter her pale wings 

before you 

 

as an invitation for more adventures, 

maybe you'll come. 

 

 

 

i reach for your hand

  

i remember once 

when you grabbed my hand, 

and i couldn't help but be 

giddy; 

 

i had never felt so accepted 

and loved in a friendship before— 

 

today i wander the woods 

every anthem of green reminding me 

of how you once wanted a green 

wedding dress, 

 

i wonder if that's still true; 

 

and maybe i shouldn't but in my dreams 

i reach for your hand and you still 

grab it back— 

 

like we've never missed a beat 

since those college days, 

and our love flows like a spring that 

never dies;  

 

flowers and water pouring over 

into eternity even the stars knit into 

constellations.

Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has twelve 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 House, March 2019), the samurai (Yellow Arrowing Publishing, October 2020), Follow the Black Raven (Alien Buddha Publishing, July 2021), Unleashing the Archers (Guerilla Genesis Press, August 2021), Hecate's Child (Alien Buddha Publishing, November 2021) fat & pretty (Dancing Girl Press, June 2022), and Searching Stained Glass Windows For An Answer (Alien Buddha Publishing, December 2022). She has three novellas and four full length poetry collections. Her debut book of photography Songs of the Creek (Alien Buddha Publishing, April 2023) was published in spring of 2023.