Two poems by Linda M. Crate

unforgiving bloom

there is no sense to this longing,
but is there ever?
it clings to me
like cold rain,
as it erupts like magma
from the volcano of my heart;
i don’t want to be
your magnolia flower forgotten
when the trees shed their
flowers for the coming summer—
a name you once knew,
but now have forgotten;
yet i choke on all the words
clumsily i fall before you
voiceless—
you look upon me with pity
i didn’t want nor need,
and i walk away with shame;
not knowing how to bloom in a way
that is forgivable.

 

 

my past self & i

my fear of heights,
and climbing on roofs
specifically
now makes sense after the dream;

i was fighting on a roof
when i died
and i fell and i fell until i could not wake—

now i am anew
with flesh and a body
that is mine but wasn’t then,

maybe that’s why these bones
feel out of place sometimes;

i remember who i was and who i am is not always
the same as those recollections buried
in my subconscious
little seeds of doubt and curiosity singing together
a medley of magic only my soul can decipher.

 

Linda M. Crate’s works have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is the author of six published chapbooks, and a micro-chap. She has a novel, also, called Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Productions, June 2018).