By: Linda M. Crate

you caught me in the ice of your
smile made me your winter’s
queen and i swallowed
all my summer’s flowers and sunshine
to allow you to take
complete control
over me,
and consented to things
i should not have;
but i‘ve remembered how to
smile sunshine
blossom more than mere
regret—
butterflies dance in
my presence again,
and the ice doesn’t seem so mercilessly
cold as it once did;
guess you’ve finally
lost your hold
on me,
and while you’ll always be my first
it doesn’t mean
you get to steal all the
light from my
eyes—
one day i‘ll find the summer’s moon
to duet with my summer’s sun.