a spring that never came by Linda M. Crate

a spring that never came 

my womb
meant to be your spring
became your winter

flowers that meant to grow
withered and rotted away

i wanted so badly
to hold you in my arms,
and know your face;
wanted to be more than these wounds--

i will never understand
why heaven needed you more
than i did,

all i know is i never needed your father
but you i needed as much as the breath
inhaled into my lungs
never got to feel the life nor the kick within
as i always wanted to;
i never got to hold or feel your love.



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 five 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), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), and one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018).