By: Linda M Crate

i have always tempered my tongue
before i spoke
to remain tactful and kind,
but sometimes it’s so tempting to become
like the monsters in my life
simply ripping people apart with their
tongue;
but then i remind myself that i don’t want to be
a monster or anything like them
sometimes i swallow down words because
being kind is more important
than being
right—
i reach to the sky to help me remember
forgiveness let the stars
relight the fires in my eyes when they die
dance with the sunlight and sing
with the moon
because each day has joy even if sometimes it is
harder to find it,
and so i will live while i’m still alive;
letting all the things that do no matter slip into the
winking eye of oblivion
because wasting my emotions on petty people
or worrying about them wouldn’t solve
anything
so i let them slip from my heart and soul like
water from the skin
never to be remembered again.