i have always been restless,
could never sit still for long;
my pacing used to drive my
stepfather crazy—he acted as
if i did it to drive him mad instead
of something i did to self-sooth
the anxiety in my mind,
he mistook my frustration at
myself for not being able to get the
right words out for an attitude which
he punished me for;
i learned to fall inward because
he'd never accept me as i was—
lost my voice and he tried to take
away my dreams, too, but i refused
to lose my magic or my muchness;
i have always been told i am too
something but i decided after i had been
bullied for my weirdness and the guidance
counselor jumped in to bully me with all
of the kids that i was going to embrace
every part of myself because their opinions
didn't matter—
so hate me if you want, i don't care;
i know my magic and my soul are worth knowing
and i have finally learned to love myself.
-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).