you wanted me to be seen not heard
to be a passive girl who hid behind
the beard of the sun and the skirts of
moonlight,
and to sit lonely perched on your pedestal
in the gilded cage of your love which
was really lust;
but i am the butterfly landing on clover
gentle yet still wild
refusing the confines and cages
of any net that would fall upon me because
i am not someone you’ll ever tame
where i prefer to be the butterfly i can also
be the unicorn or the wolf
i can be a harpy and a chimera
or the soft petals of persephone’s flowers
life is a matter of perspective,
and you refused to see the relevance of mine
rejecting what was not yours;
insisting that your reality must be mine,
too, but we were two different people looking
out to sea
you saw only dangers and threats
i saw only mermaids and love
wanted to swim beneath the jade sapphire
confines that knew no beginning or end
so deep they could understand
my intensity and depths but weak men
cannot handle the helm of strong women
we burn just a little too bright for their candles.
Linda M. Crate’s works have shown up in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She has four published poetry chapbooks the latest of which is If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016). She is also the author of the Magic Series and two forthcoming chapbooks Wild Thing and My Wings Were Meant to Fly.
Foxglove Journal 