so my flowers could flourish
despite the fact i watered the flowers of our friendship, there was never any growth; everything remained half-dead and half-living; i got exhausted of being the only one to put any effort in so eventually i stopped—you said you didn't miss people, but you soon found that you did miss me; it was too late
—i tend to give people more chances than they deserve and you were no different in that regard, but i wasn't willing to wait around anymore until you were able to give me time and attention; i have no affection left for you—so when you clawed so hard and so often after i told you we were no longer friends for a friendship i have to admit that i felt nothing but disgust, where was all this effort before? you weren't there when i needed you, yet i was expected to be there at your beck and call when you needed me; friendship isn't supposed to stunt your growth and be traumatic but trauma was all you gave me
—looking back i realize you were a narcissist because nothing that ever happened was ever your fault, you were always the victim even when you weren't; and i got tired of being your punching bag—for my own personal growth, i pulled out every root of our friendship so that my flowers could flourish once more; i am sorry that you miss me but i don't feel guilty for leaving you behind any more.
-linda m. crate
with all your need
they say
growth is
moving on,
but when you move
on without them they
will insist you cannot cut
them out;
as if they weren't the ones
that left you bleeding
with the scissors in your
back—
you gave me scissors so i cut
the ties that tethered us
in togetherness,
and you have no one to blame but yourself;
i needed to grow
so you could not be hanging on the
vines of all my flowers
crushing them to death with all of your need.
-linda m. crate
bigger and better plans
remember that promise
you gave me?
gave me a false sense of security
as i was under the assumption
we'd grow old together,
but that was just a lie you
told to keep me tethered to the
many tongues of your lust;
growth came after you abandoned me
and married the woman you cheated on me with—
one autumn day i woke up and the agony
was gone,
i could bloom and live and be again;
rediscovered my magic and reclaimed my voice
and danced in my muchness once more—
every day i grow more and more
into who i was meant to be,
and the universe had bigger and better plans
for me than to be the wife of someone
insincere and untrue.
-linda m. crate
but i do regret
they want to take credit
for your growth
when it was all your effort,
and they didn't do a damn
thing to better your life;
so many say forgive and forget
and there will be no regret—
but i do regret giving people
more chances than they deserved,
some people didn't deserve my
forgiveness;
and thought they could simply use
me over and over and over again—
the key to growing is ignoring what they
have said about me,
and though sometimes i get angry they take
credit for my efforts they're going to think what
they want to and so i keep growing toward the sun
and let them wilt alone in the angriest
of suns.
-linda m. crate
no longer stained
you wanted a damsel in distress
that you could dress in any garb
you thought could make you shine
in the best light, but instead you
found a warrior in a dress;
now you paint me the villain of your tale
but you've never been a hero to anyone
not even yourself—
when the illusion fades, they won't love you;
because they have fallen in love with
the mask of you who they thought was you
who i thought was you before you revealed
your true nature to me—
glancing over my shoulder i am not sorry
that you are my past and will never be my future,
but if i must be the villain then i will be the one
that wins; i will be the one that they will love
and they will say that you deserved your end—
i will just be grateful that you name no longer
stains my heart.
-linda m. crate
without a prayer
you are without a prayer,
the moon won't save you;
she is my mother and she knows
how you tried to shatter my light
until only darkness remained—
i think she hates you more than i
ever could, her grudge is somehow
hotter than the sun and colder than the
coldest of rains; and if one of us
must go down she says it's going to be you—
there was a time i would cry at the thought
of you being left lone in the darkness,
but now i see that perhaps it is everything
you deserve because of all the darkness you've
brought others; all of the magic you have
destroyed and all the magic you tried to—
i have refound myself and claimed my magic,
and i know that you've made me a villain in your
narrative so let me destroy you in my chaos.
-linda m. crate
