Idō _ Movement
artwork by Athiba Balasubramanian
Striving for balance in these uncertain times with a 3rd invisible element that seems to be teaching us a lesson on priorities, life, and nature.
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An inclusive independent journal with a focus on literature & art
a little crooked
Linda M. Crate
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 ten 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), splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019), the samurai (Yellow Arrowing Publishing, October 2020), Follow the Black Raven (Alien Buddha Publishing, July 2021), Unleashing the Archers (Guerilla Genesis Press, August 2021), and Hecate's Child (Alien Buddha Publishing, November 2021) and three micro-chapbooks Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018), moon mother (Origami Poems Project, March 2020), and & so I believe (Origami Poems Project, April 2021). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018).
never knew it would
be written in my lore
that i would fall for
a woman,
the mythology of me
seemed to be different from
the script i was supposed to
follow and so i tried hard not
to deviate from the path;
but love is love and that's nothing
to be ashamed of—
i am the rainbow of my grandmother's life,
the light that parts the darkness from the clouds;
i am dreams and imagination and hope
wrapped in the bones of humanity;
but my wings can carry me all the way to the
sun yet i prefer to speak to the moon—
i am a daughter of the moon,
always shining even when i cannot be seen;
i may not be straight but i have always
liked things when they were a little crooked i
always thought it gave them more character.