you dug your own grave
you buried me,
but i dug my way back
up out of the ground;
if you wanted darkness
you could've just asked—
i prefer to be flowers
of compassion,
joy and laughter loud
as a crow,
empathy and understanding;
but i am not all flower
crowns and whispers of light—
i am a vampire who will
claw her way out of hell and back
for revenge,
and you've activated my rage;
it supersedes my need to
show you mercy so prepare
for a nightmare—
you dug your own grave
when you threw me in that casket,
for a vampire coffins are only
a place of rest;
you couldn't think shattering
my magic would be that easy.
Linda M. Crate's poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has eleven published chapbooks, the latest being: Searching Stained Glass Windows For An Answer (Alien Buddha Publishing, December 2022) and four micro-chapbooks. Her first taste of the macabre was the animated Beetlejuice, but her first taste of horror was in the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe which she enjoyed. Her favorite of his works being "The Raven".