55 Comments
User's avatar
Karen Esbenshade's avatar

i want to place my eyeballs on the conveyor belt

in search of my baggage

to hide my past

but then it always catches up to me

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Ahhhh this is a perfect addition!!!

Expand full comment
Karen Esbenshade's avatar

Your poem is inviting 😘

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

🫂🫂🫂

Expand full comment
Pamela Leavey's avatar

Love this Caroline! I have been feeling a lot of angst over the past couple of weeks, angst over the state of my life and all things revolving around in the peripheral world. My vision is to get on that plane and fly away!

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

I’ll meet you at the airport!! I guess angst in just in the air…

Expand full comment
Pamela Leavey's avatar

Let’s go somewhere warm and angst free!

Expand full comment
Kevin Maher's avatar

That’s always an inviting proposition. But it’s increasingly hard to do. Technology has seen to that. And those bloody thoughts in your head don’t care about time, or zones, the weather, or whether you are up to it or not. They just keep coming out. So we need to be careful as to what it is we are putting in .

I could identify with a lot in this piece, Caroline.

Thanks for sharing.

Have a peaceful Friday.

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Those damn thoughts!!! Comforting to know that it’s a pretty common experience! Happy Friday, thanks for being here!!

Expand full comment
Jenovia 🕸️'s avatar

If only! I would love to take a break from my head and heart when they are particularly overactive. Loved the surprise of a poem this week. 🩵

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Right?! Like we need a few days away from each other! Thank you, my dear 🫂🤍

Expand full comment
Arty Cweiber's avatar

I love these words and this imagery. Your thoughts and ideas are always so alive and you bring such a vibrancy into your writing. I’m going to be imagining a brain squishing down a conveyor belt for the rest of the day… 🧠💕

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Aww thanks!! Just the visual brought me reprieve. 🤍☺️

Expand full comment
Isabel Cowles Murphy's avatar

Oooooh this is so visceral. Gave me a shiver. The sliced scalp! The wet-sounding heart! I hope you write many more poems. 🧠🫀

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Fingers crossed the inspiration strikes again! Thank you!!

Expand full comment
Eileen Dougharty's avatar

I love this so much for so many reasons!!! Brava!

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Thank you 🥹🫂❤️‍🔥

Expand full comment
Paolo Peralta's avatar

A beautiful observation. A beautiful expression

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Thank you, my friend!

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Grace Martinez's avatar

I like this imagery of how to rid yourself of intrusive thoughts. Sometimes it’s like running them through the intense cycle on the washing machine until they become too faded to use

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Ohhhh I love that too!! Too faded to mean anything!!

Expand full comment
Alexandra Youmans's avatar

So relatable

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

I’ll take the company!

Expand full comment
Resident20Some's avatar

I love the imagery in this. And FEEL the peeling back of your scalp geez that hit. It's a blessing and curse to be so thought-consumed. Our superpower that allows us to navigate this world while at the same time wishing we could put a USPS stamp on our thoughts and drop them into those blue containers on the street that probably never get checked.

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

I wrote that earlier…that my intense feelings are a superpower but also like walking around without my skin! But it’s the only way I know how to be 🤍

Expand full comment
Resident20Some's avatar

Best to embrace. Enjoyed catching up on your pieces. Sounds like things are heavy (fine, just a lot) these days. Sending you love 💚

Expand full comment
DERICK AMUSTRONG's avatar

Beautiful words ❤️

Mllakes remember all the times I've thought of flying away from all these

😊

Thanks for sharing

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Yes, flying away from the negative self talk!

Expand full comment
Kathleen's avatar

It's lovely and I actually always find the airport to be a place of reflection, especially when waiting for baggage, so this is totally relatable.

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Yes…and the people watching gets me thinking! Thank you!!

Expand full comment
Clement Charles's avatar

Been there at the carousel often, averaging eighteen planes a month while I trailed North American and Mexico with a trip or two to Europe 'searching for cash under rocks' as 'they' say. I did so as as an independent rep. You hit my thoughts right on the money!

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

I always say I’d like to travel that much…but I think it would start to take a toll. Thank you for being here!!

Expand full comment
Faye Boam's avatar

I love when you change things up over here, Caroline. After reading the wonderful line, "metronomic taunt," I felt inspired to put on this song, and then I read the whole thing again with it in the background. you might like it, too...

https://open.spotify.com/track/038Vfg1pQODma4m11Tdqzd?si=59ee248752c44753

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Ohhh I love this! I can’t wait to turn it up loud! Thank you 😊

Expand full comment
Faye Boam's avatar

my pleasure darling. music is definitely one of my love languages

Expand full comment
appleton king's avatar

my luck the dogs go wild over my bag and i never make it out if the airport 🤔🤪

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Likely!!!

Expand full comment
Dia Lupo's avatar

absolutely wrecked by "would it thud against the metal,

a dull, wet sound,

or slip away quietly?"

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

Damn! You got me feeling like a real, sad lil poet 🫂🤍

Expand full comment