By: Linda M Crate

dance magic dance
surfaced in my head
three days before you
departed
almost as if you were summoning
me from the deep slumber of a nightmare
insisting it was time to become
a rebel against reality,
the cruel force which i have been warring
since childhood;
i will shatter it with fantasy
because there’s more compassion and love
and kindness and magic in the realms of books and songs and
the most serene whispers of barn owl feathers dancing through
eternity we know as night,
and there’s more honesty in the manic lyrics of a poet
than the lip of any politician;
so i am a rebel for the light
fighting against every darkness in any way i can
because i refuse to live in a world
where magic can’t dance—
it’s the last gift you gave me and so i will forever dance
unflinching of my power, of my magic, of the beauty in my light
a light that desires only goodness and compassion and
love;
i will never stop shining, will never let my magic
stop dancing.