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.
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)
