in my america
religion wouldn’t be
used as a weapon,
it would simply be one’s
personal beliefs;

and people would be
loved and accepted as
they were—

no one would have any
fear of hate crimes
or being shot up in a night club
simply because of who
they love,

because diversity exists
in every species and every rock
and in every sunset and every
pocket of our
world;

love wouldn’t be any different—

in my america no one
would starve or be thirsty,
everyone would have a home;

and you’d only spend money
on luxury items
and things outside of your
basic needs—

in my america it would be a heaven
not this hell people try to insist i accept,
but i refuse this reality;
we can and must do better
than this dystopia.

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 fifteen published chapbooks the latest being: not your piñata (Alien Buddha Publishing, June 2025).