Away From You by Linda M. Crate

they say fairy tales
aren't true,
but both you and i know
they are;
you are the wicked stepmother
they always wrote about
except you happened
to be a man and a stepfather—
you took a girl 
starved of love,
and fractured her in the echo
of your nightmares
instead of breaking the cycle of
your pain then demanded respect
she couldn't give you;
don't blame me for rallying all my
birds against you or for your loss of sight
when you only ever tried to rend me
into a world of nightmares
had of enough of your hell so i built my heaven
away from you.

Linda M. Crate's works have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is the author of the Phoenix Tears and five published chapbooks, and a microchap.