Five Poems by Linda M. Crate

 

crescent moon 

 

society is ugly, 

wants to force everyone 

to conform to one image; 

 

but this world is 

made more beautiful by all  

of its diversity— 

 

& i could never be anyone 

less than me, 

 

although when i was younger 

they made me wish i could 

be anyone but me i didn't want  

to be weird but i realized when i  

was older that it was a compliment 

not an insult— 

 

i have magic, i have imagination, i 

have heart, i have soul, i have empathy, 

i have dreams; 

 

none of these things does society have— 

 

i have no need to be liked by the 

masses because so often the m is silent 

in that crowd, and when you follow 

the crowd you usually get no further; i was 

meant to step outside the box— 

 

i am a crescent moon in a world of squares. 

 

 

 

crescent moon & whole sun

  

do you still howl 

with coyotes? 

 

are your  

dreams 

becoming reality? 

 

never in a thousand 

years did i anticipate 

the invisible string theory 

could possibly be real, 

 

but now that you've 

returned; rosefinch, 

 

i find myself nervous 

and uncertain about what 

future we could possibly have— 

 

it would be nice to 

be friends  

again, 

but could my heart  

endure it? 

 

so many years i have gone 

with your silence, 

 

this anticipation 

feels cruel and long and overwhelming; 

i thought i would be relieved you 

returned to my life but i feel 

so unsure— 

 

i don't want to drive you away again, 

but i am a crescent moon and you are whole sun 

perhaps we speak two different languages. 

 

 

 

some comfort  

 

we've always 

been  

outsiders 

 

you & i, 

 

society looks down 

upon those who are 

different and we've never 

been what they  

consider normal; 

 

i guess that's why i was 

first drawn to the light of your 

sun to begin with, rosefinch; 

 

you woke in me magic and dreaming 

when i thought both were  

dead in me— 

 

thank you for teaching me there 

was beauty in my scars, 

 

and thank you for returning; 

 

i don't know what the future holds, 

but there is some comfort in knowing 

the universe still has a place 

for me and you. 

 

 

 

hopeful prayer  

 

there's a world full of wonder, 

so many adventures to be had; 

 

i am cautiously optimistic  

for the future  

of rosefinch & raven 

 

though i know not where our 

adventures may take us 

or where the conversations 

may lead us— 

 

all i know is the universe is vast, 

pulling and calling to us  

in all of its infinite wisdom; 

 

and somehow it lead you back to me— 

 

what forests shall we fly to 

or songs shall we sing? 

 

i suppose only the future  

knows, 

and we're not quite there yet; 

 

so i am stuck in this limbo 

of anticipation— 

 

some sort  

of hopeful prayer, 

where i hope i don't make myself 

a fool before the gods and goddesses 

nor the universe. 

 

 

 

keeping each other  

 

maybe  

the moon chasing 

you home 

when you were little was me, 

 

and maybe the sun 

chasing me on my adventures 

in the day was you 

following after me; 

 

perhaps we were keeping each 

other long  

before we met— 

 

rosefinch, 

i am sorry i once pushed you  

away and brought you 

sadness; 

 

i wonder what drew you 

back into my orbit— 

 

i try to shove 

my fears and worries 

aside although there are plenty, 

 

but i must remind myself 

it is a miracle that you have returned; 

 

so perhaps the universe 

is telling me of my magic and the 

power of it to call back people 

to me who i once thought were gone 

forever.

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.