i’m spring

with all her flowers and rain,

and i am summer

with all her warmth and laughter;

i am autumn with all her color

perfecting the art of

letting go,

and i am winter with all his death and

solitude;

my heart is a patchwork quilt of

seasons,

and each one knows me by

name—

my favorite season to be is spring

in all her softness and kindness,

but i warned you

in my wounds that i could be the perfect storm;

but you never

listened

you thought you could kill all my seasons by leavin

me for dead in winter

so i had no choice to burn it until my summer

heart was freed.

…

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has three published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), and If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016). Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015. The second novel of this series Dragons & Magic was published in October 2015. The third of the seven book series Centaurs & Magic was published November 2016. Her novels Corvids & Magic and Phoenix Tears are forthcoming.

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