don't make me be the monster
"we want something more than anger"
but sometimes that's all i feel
rage runs deep within me just as my love does
perhaps i don't quite articulate myself
like a lady
when it comes to everything that enrages me,
and i won't apologize for that;
you should issue an apology for asking me to be
anyone but me—
i am a beauty and magic all my own
will burn through anyone with my dreams should they
think there's no consequence for crossing me
i am not your doormat
you're not going to walk all over me
all my life they've tried to tame me and tell me
how i should be
some have even insisted how i should write
insisting that my ideas were bad, stupid, or too
weird;
well screw you—
and no, darling, that wasn't an offer
because i could do much better;
my point is you're never going to chain or snare me
or put me in a cage
my father tried once to pull me away from the clouds
got a nasty cut from my talons across his heart
he knows now not to cross me
because i am not some rabbit hearted girl
there's always a fire burning
intense and passionate i am the war ready raven
don't make me take your eyes and feed your heart to the foxes.
Linda M. Crate's works have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines both print and online. She is a two-time push cart nominee and the author of four published chapbooks. The latest book of poetry being My Wings Were Made to Fly. (Flutter Press, September 2017).