Monster Slayer

you like to pretend
that you didn't hurt me
or that i don't exist,
but you don't just get to
erase me because
of the shame you feel in
being you;
and i wish i could say that you're
not that bad of a person because i
was in love with you once,
but you really are
a monster—
there's no words i can offer to you
of comfort
because everything sweet i felt for you
has died
all that remains is this aching heart and this
rage that burns me when i think
of your name,
and i wish i could say that i'm happy for you;
but i'm not
men like you don't deserve happily ever afters—
you married the woman you cheated
on me with,
and you got a promotion at work;
i wish the wicked never
prospered
because it always suffers the good to see them
succeed—
one day, however, i will come back
to avenge all the innocence you've killed because there
need not be monsters in a world where nightmares
are already too frequent.

 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) and 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. Her third novel Centaurs & Magic was published November 2016.