Contributor: Linda M. Crate

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fork tongued
serpent
gazed by the silver sigh of the
moon
you tried to tell me you were
a wolf,
but wolves have loyalty;
no, you're a serpent,
deceptive little liar
crowned
with broken moonlight hymns—
you gave me an orange,
and I took a bite;
fell from my own garden like eve
deceived by the serpent
so was I
now I aspire to crush every one of your
brethren under my heel—
I should have known better because even
Hades gave fruit,
but I thought since it wasn't an apple or pomegranate
I was safe;
you were a destruction I could not foresee
perhaps if I had cassandra's sight I could have saved
myself from the lament that was your lust.


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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. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic is forthcoming from Ravenswood Publishing.