Linda M. Crate – Two Poems


 

Pomegranate Wine

the old woman’s eyes
were knitted
with wrinkles that spoke
of true sadness and grief and
their gaze fell sadder still
as if those lottery tickets were
her last prayer of being
happy,
a last chance to reach some place
that did not sing of grief;
and i wonder who and what she lost
that she should be so profoundly
unhappy—
but pomegranate wine
only ever carries
bitterness,
and the sky was purple that day
with a sadness of it’s own;
and she drank it in
with open lips.



Some Women

some women are faeries or elves
or druids or any song of
benevolent beauty
singing sweetly of birdsong and kindness
or a silver psalm of sadness
that quickly passes
like the life of a flower or a rain storm
that breaks into rainbow;

some are mermaids
with a lovely lilting song and an unquenchable
thirst for sea—

but some women are vampires, harpies, werewolves, sirens, and the
dark things
grappling for the light and trying not to allow
their own monstrous desires to devour them
as they seek goodness and virtue
in their own way;
despite the persecution they receive
for being misfits—

all my life
i’ve sought the light
the beauty and the dreams,
and though it doesn’t come as easily to me as
it may the faeries and their brood or the
mermaids and their kind fins;
i’m reaching something
beautiful on the sharp edge of my blood lusting fangs.


 

Author’s Statement on Beauty

Beauty is a hard concept to grasp. Not only is it in the eye of the beholder whether something is beautiful or not, there are also different types of beauty. Some things are outwardly have beauty like a face, a peacock’s fanned tail, a sunset, the moon, and colorful tropical fish. True beauty I believe comes from within, as cliché as that sounds. I’ve met beautiful people with horrible souls & people who were just average in appearance who shine so beautifully one would think they were stars.


Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015. The second novel of this series Dragons & Magic was published in October 2015. The third of this series Centaurs & Magic is slated for a November release. Her third poetry collection If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016) was recently published. Her poetry collection Sing Your Own Song is forthcoming through Barometric Pressures Series.