you weren’t the first,
and i’m sure you won’t be the last,
but you gave me no room
to be me;
always wanting the dream
not the reality—
you didn’t want my nightmares,
my dreams, or even me;
just a perfect model of a woman
whose silhouette would sit prettily in her cage
to be seen and not heard or sit
perfectly perched on her pedestal without
complaint and perfect restraint
of her tongue
i have never made a good mannequin
nor you a good god—
always trying to tame me, hedge me in, get rid
of my muchness you were the hand of society always
slapping me down as if i were some insect
to be crushed,
but my song like the cicadas will be heard;
my heart is wild, rebellious, and fierce and my dreams
burn brighter than the wings of the sun and the topography
of moon bones;
i will scald you in the oceans of my emotions because
no one will ever tell me how to live
i will smash your glass ceilings and i will break your cages
no snare or threat will ever hold me
i will claw the eyes out of anyone who tries to hold me back
from my dreams.
Author: Linda M. Crate
Email: [email protected]
Author Bio: 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. She has three published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), and If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016). 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 the seven book series Centaurs & Magic was published November 2016. Her novel Corvids & Magic was published March 2017.
