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Linda M. Crate

The November Chosen Poet is Linda M. Crate

Please feel free to email Linda at: veritaserumvial@hotmail.com

Linda Crate

THE GREATEST PERFECTION

they beckoned him
without meaning to
called him
away from the messy meal
he had left in the alleyway
the vampire’s blood-stained lips
terrifying to them,
but his fangs more impressive
still;
it summoned a second wave of hunger
through him to taste their fear thick
as the willow branches
that grew inches
from the windows of this very house—
without thinking about it
instinct kicked in,
and even though they outnumbered him
five to one
still he won
he knew not the calamity of losing
it was a misfortune he had lost when he lost his
humanity,
and he listened to the harried song of the crows and ravens
dancing as the wolves sang with the moon;
and he thought the stillness of night
was the greatest
perfection.

TRICKS OF THE MIND

the nightmare swallowed
me into darkness
forced me away from the safety
of the light and made me
look at the blackness in my subconscious
a terrible but beautiful imagination
can sometimes be the weapon
of darkness,
and a game that could control my destiny and
kill people in such grave detail
could never be
a reality;
yet to the sleep deprived mind a dog
becomes a werewolf
or a gentle innocent shrub becomes a man-eating
venus fly trap—
and so sometimes on must trick the mind
to lose the darkness and embrace
light.

DEATH’S SERENITY

in the darkness of night
a silver full moon
hung
a crucifix and cross unearthing
deadly nightmares
of visions claws and fur,
and a teenage girl
walked lone and nervous through
the wood
insistent upon returning home that
night despite her boyfriend’s
protests that it were
too dangerous;
she knew her parents would worry
otherwise—
she doesn’t see him coming
only feels the vibrations of his presence
when it’s too late and the fangs
are already in her throat and the blood
pours like the rain the clouds have
refused to release all day,
and she considers that this pain might be
heaven for the moonlight seems
serene.

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. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than a Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. 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 this series Centaurs & Magic is slated for a November release. Her poetry collection Sing Your Own Song is forthcoming through Barometric Pressures Series.