singing bones

death
wasn’t necessarily
the end,
and she knew that;

buried beneath the soil
for many a moon
she decided that no one
would suffer his hand again—

he got away with the
perfect crime
because no one could prove
his guilt

perfectly silver tongued
and charming
he was a liar even winter
couldn’t freeze

so she would be the one
to make his hot blood go cold
surrendering him to silence
quiet as the dew,

and so she rose white from the
ground like the song of
tonight’s moon
brought with her only sharpened bone

that was enough to render him
dead she was reassured;
and when he saw her bones he was terrified
probably because they said dead men didn’t talk

yet in the end everyone was a story
and she wanted hers to be told honestly
so she fashioned her bones into a weapon and slit
his throat until only death could claim him.

 

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. She has three published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013) Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014), and If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications – August 2016). Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015. The second novel of this series Dragons & Magic was published in October 2015. The third of this series Centaurs & Magic was published November 2016. Her novel Corvids & Magic was published in March 2017.

Cesar Valtierra is a graphic designer from El Paso, TX and the creator of the webcomic, Balazo.