Turn the other cheek by Linda M. Crate

a life incomplete

undone

pulled apart 

the pearls still dancing

across the ground,

i count them;

have always noticed the other

things people miss

like the cobwebs on their door jambs

or the dust on the sill

but i am too polite to say a thing—

even as they jab at my 

perceived flaws,

i don't let their misjudgments impale them;

whilst living amongst monsters 

one must remember their humanity

because i promised myself i would be better

than those who break me down—

i am not an apple to be shaken loose from a tree,

sometimes the best response is none;

if you don't react they are left to turn the other cheek.

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Linda M. Crate has been full of words and stories for as long as she remembers. Her works have been published in many magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is a two-time push cart nominee and 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).