gray as melancholy by Linda M. Crate

time heals all wounds
or so they say,
but i know that’s not true;

nineteen going on 
twenty years and i still think of you—

i wish you could’ve felt enough
love to stay,
but perhaps that day the nightmares
were stronger than any dream
that could’ve saved you;

but i miss you, uncle—

i hope that you’re not suffering now
as you had in life, that your pain has eased;

that you have found a place
where the nightmares can’t find you
anymore—

life isn’t a disney movie,
my tears couldn’t bring you back;
i must have cried a thousand or more
that rainy day 
gray as the melancholy of your eyes.

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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).