won’t be reduced to insecurities
i wish i always felt like i were enough, some days i know i am with such certainty; yet others i feel the external pressures of the world pressing down on me as i remember all the words that told me i was inadequate in some way— but it was their judgment without understanding or empathy that made me introspective, and fall inward upon my own imagination and understanding of the world; and so i will never be ashamed that i decided to follow my heart and my dreams instead of the crowd— they don't remember who they are, but i know who i am; the woman full of magic and power who can make worlds from only words— i am not the first and perhaps not the last, but i am a creation of my own merit; i won't be reduced to insecurities. -linda m. crate a single dream as the butterflies danced i felt such peace, and such joy; i like watching butterflies they always remind me magic exists in this world with their wings of whimsy— dragonflies do this, too, even if my mother says they once scared her; there's just something about winged things that makes me believe in miracles and hold onto hope even when it seems like darkness is swallowing us whole i forever believe in the light because i know a single dream can change everything.
Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has seven published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019), and the samurai (Yellow Arrowing Publishing, October 2020), and two micro-chapbooks Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018) and moon mother (Origami Poems Project, March 2020). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018). She also has three full-length poetry collections, the latest being Mythology of My Bones (Cyberwit, August 2020).
Flight of the dragonfly 