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depends on the person

by Linda M. Crate

i remember your anger

when i recoiled from your dick

you forced me to touch it,

and all i wanted was to talk;

in my most vulnerable moments

where depression had taken her hold

over me

you proved that humanity wasn't

something i should believe in—

i had been straining to watch a movie

that i had no interest in so that

you couldn't kiss me,

i don't know why you thought forcing

my hands down your pants

was going to make me swoon over you;

and you only calmed when i told you about the ex

that tried to rape me

acting as if you were any different

than that man—

you, like him, took away my peace of mind;

chiselled away a piece of my innocence

made me more cynical when it came to men

and people in general because

you made me wonder if people don't always have

some sort of angle,

if people don't always want something in return—

made me wonder is kindness really kind?

i guess it depends on the person.

a blindness they choose

by Linda M. Crate

my friend never told me

about the abusive

relationship she was in

until it was over,

she told me about his controlling nature

of how he caused her stress;

all the bruises and demands—

it makes me angry

that even in this day and age that

anyone should think they are entitled

to a person,

that they think they have any right or authority to

control someone;

each of us was given free will

no one should have to surrender theirs

for the comfort of another—

i am glad i did not know this man

because i would want to inflict the same harm

upon him as he caused her,

an eye for an eye may make the world blind;

but it seems these days

so little see even with eyes wide open—

i am just tired of seeing all the suffering.

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image: painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw 

Linda M. Crate's poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has six 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, March 2019), and one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018)

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