August, 2019 | lotus carroll

to grow freely. like the flowers.

 it is ok
 to let go of anger
 to quietly forgive those 
 who hurt you in the past
 this is a gift -
 for you. not for them.
 to step out of resentment
 to release yourself
 from the shackles
 of disappointment 
 to be alive inside your skin,
 again.
 to grow freely. like the flowers.
 rising up to the sunlight
 stretching out tall
 feeling hope flood in.
 remembering what it feels like
 to move smoothly,
 exist in the world
 without the burden
 of pain riding your shoulders
 to be weightless. in the best way.
 go on. fly free.
 it is ok.

*©lotuscarroll2013*
Image & Text All Rights Reserved **No use allowed without a license.** For image licensing inquiries, email me directly. [email protected]

lies and smiles

…What have I eaten?
Lies and smiles.
Surely the sky is not that color,
Surely the grass should be rippling.
All day, gluing my church of burnt matchsticks,
I dream of someone else entirely.
And he, for this subversion,
Hurts me, he
With his armor of fakery,
His high cold masks of amnesia.
How did I get here?
Indeterminate criminal,
I die with variety—
Hung, starved, burned, hooked.
I imagine him
Impotent as distant thunder,
In whose shadow I have eaten my ghost ration.
I wish him dead or away.
That, it seems, is the impossibility.
That being free. What would the dark
Do without fevers to eat?
What would the light
Do without eyes to knife, what would he
Do, do, do without me?
~sylvia plath, excerpt from “the jailer”

©lotuscarroll2019
Image All Rights Reserved No use allowed without a license. For licensing inquiries, email me directly. [email protected]

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Lotus Carroll
bleeding heart
```
a heart that does not bleed
is not stronger than one that does -
it is simply dead already.
```
©lotuscarroll2019
Image All Rights Reserved No use allowed without a license. For licensing inquiries, email me directly. [email protected]

for self portrait sunday, theme: identity
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Lotus Carroll