By: Linda M Crate

you wanted me to crucify
my dreams and hopes and aspirations
to be content living behind the
walls of dead dreams
believing in the vanity of scorn and judgment,
but i could not be death when i was
born to be life;
i tried to be kind about it but you refused to
accept my silence
so hear me now if you seek to pursue me
it will only end in your own
heartache
for we are no longer friends
you said it yourself—
too many times you’ve provoked my ire and cut
me down and insisted that i was too something
so i refuse to cut myself on your nails
or to carry your cross
any further
i dropped your bones in the river to wash them away
because we all have our own crosses to bear
yours was crushing me
into the dust of death but it is not yet my time to die,
and so i had to cut loose of you and your
negativity.