i dream of running
barefoot through the wood,
living in the trees;
being surrounded by creek
and crows and wildflowers—
i dream of endless autumns
never too cold or too warm,
just exactly right;
of rainy days that bring relief
when it is too warm out—
i don't want their reality
or what they say can be mine,
because i know i was born
to do more than pay bills and die;
i am here to embrace my magic
and use my voice and discover
every part of myself they want
me to hide and break it wide open
so they cannot ignore the ribbons
of my sunsets because they shine
too brightly—i am here to show them
purple moons exist as well as the
harvest and red moons they adore.
-linda m. crate
 

Published on September 1st, 2022

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 eleven 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) and fat & pretty (Dancing Girl Press, June 2022), and three micro-chapbooks Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018), moon mother (Origami Poems Project, March 2020), and & so I believe (Origami Poems Project, April 2021). She is also the author of the novella Mates (Alien Buddha Publishing, March 2022).