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they play with our rights

and lives as if it is some sort

of sick and sordid game,

but i want to believe

that i was born to be more than

a number or cog in their

broken machine;

i want to believe that i have

a purpose and destiny

that could break their system—

i've never been able to color inside

their lines,

and they have always tried to tame me;

but i am not some bird they can cage—

i am wild and feral as nature

herself,

and i won't surrender;

they won't steal all of my natural resources

or kill all of my wildlife and flowers—

i refuse to surrender my power or magic.

I Refuse to Surrender

by Linda Crate

RABBLE REVIEW No.7

Page: 103

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Author Bio:

Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has twelve published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019), the samurai (Yellow Arrowing Publishing, October 2020), Follow the Black Raven (Alien Buddha Publishing, July 2021), Unleashing the Archers (Guerilla Genesis Press, August 2021), Hecate's Child (Alien Buddha Publishing, November 2021), fat & pretty (Dancing Girl Press, June 2022), and Searching Stained Glass Windows For An Answer (Alien Buddha Publishing, December 2022). She is also the author of the novella “Mates” (Alien Buddha Publishing, March 2022) and the photography collection Songs of the Creek (Alien Buddha Publishing, April 2023).