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Poetry: A Bird Unquiet by Linda M. Crate

a bird unquiet 

i was sewn into 
the fabric of silence
never wanting to hurt
my mother because this
was her story,
but it is also part of mine;
i cannot ignore
how much it has hurt me—
of how i’ve felt worthless and vile
just for existing,
and how people have only
reinforced that when they ghost
me in friendships or when they 
bullied me;
even the man who raised me 
made me feel like i could be nothing more
than a burden to my mother so i cannot
see all the goodness they tell me he has
only the pain and rage he’s given me
through the years—
i never felt like i deserved love,
but i tried so hard to be a perfect daughter;
and never was i good enough no matter
what i did so eventually i stopped trying
and i was criticized for that, too—
spent so many years with these wings
giving up on myself and my dreams of flight
because i was scared i didn’t deserve to live,
yet now i have learned to love myself and to fly
because i am not my father: i am me.

About the poet

Linda M. Crate is a writer whose works have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is the author of six poetry chapbooks, the latest of which is: More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018). Recently she has published two full-length poetry collections Vampire Daughter (Dark Gatekeeper Gaming, February 2020) and The Sweetest Blood (Cyberwit, February 2020).
A link to her work can be found HERE

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Flashes

Created in 2014, Flashes is a privately owned literary website. We publish short stories, non-fiction, flash fiction and poetry. Our goal is to give talented writers a platform to showcase their creativity, with an emphasis on original voice, innovative style and challenging plots.
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