By: Linda M Crate

all you do is irritate me
you are toxic
to my health and my happiness
so i’ve walked away
our friendship was never much
years of paltry things
i always gave and you always took
always i believed in living and let living
tried to be the light,
but you were all too acquainted with being
death and destruction;
you never truly knew me or cared to
it was always
using my talents until there was nothing left
i wanted to give you
not my time and not my life—
my time is not an obligation or tool or something
you deserve
it was a gift that you always took for granted
just as you did me,
and so i feel not one dram of guilt in leaving this all
behind for broken spindles do naught more
than bleed fingers;
i am not sleeping beauty
refuse to be put to sleep by your spell
for i am meant to be awake and alive and dreaming
working and achieving
making something of myself and simply because
you can’t fathom that doesn’t make my
path wrong.