2 Poems by Linda M. Crate

immortal heart

winter
always remembers you
with such vicious
ferocity
that i hate every blue diamond
of snow that crosses
my path,
and every icicle is a constant
reminder of how you
shoved your
icy fingers into my chest
and pulled out my
heart;
but when the amaranths come
and spring burns through
winter's core
you fade away and my heart remembers
again birdsong and sunshine and my
spirit soars again—
you may have soured a moment
but not my forever
as i'm sure you intended
with your merciless words as cold as the winter
that birthed you into this world,
but i am summer's child
i always rise from the ashes like a phoenix
there is a light in me that never dies
and you and your could should
never hope to kill it
because the truth will immortally breathe
through me and my words. 

the girl that belongs to nature

i was fathered by the trees

mothered by the moon and sun and sky

sistered by rivers and valleys and fields

brothered by flowers and earth and laughter

there is a light in me that never dies

i prefer kindness,

but i can burn with all the fury of the

wild

for i am the girl who flies with ravens and runs

with wolves;

coyotes sing with me and finches

soar in my skies

bears roar with my anger and wolverines

exact my revenge

i am never out of my element because i can always

catch my breath no matter where i am

nature always envelopes me with kisses and love

the wind loves to dance across my hair,

and i love the bare earth

dancing across

my feet it gives me more soul than the words of

dying and lying men—

birdsong nests in my ears and flowers crown

my head

and butterflies and bees dance with me

we are all connected but i feel most at home when i'm

sitting in the forest letting my father and mother

wrap their arms around me.

Bionote

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. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015.