Linda M. Crate - Those Who Have No Name

he stood at the tombstone

one night

glancing at the moonlight

upon his mother's 

grave,

and he turned as there was a disturbance;

nothing seemed amiss

then out of nowhere there lumbered

a creature hideous and cruel

it latched itself to his arm and he could

not break away having nothing

to defend himself;

he squirmed and wriggled trying to free himself

yet the beast wouldn't let go—

"this isn't fair," he protested,

and much to his horror the beast spoke, too:

"life isn't fair, kid, especially

to the dead that have no name."

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. Recently, her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015.