Ptolemaea - Ethel Cain

Audre Lorde, from The Black Unicorn: Poems; “Power”

[Text ID: “I have not been able to touch the destruction within me.”]

Suzanne Scanlon, from "Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen," published in 2024

committing a crime is fine as long as its done with love <3

I keep getting harassed for my abusive past actions even though i'm trying my best to recover and said sorry, it makes me feel sometimes like I'm unfixable and just destined to be a monster forever, and that I deserve to feel in pain, how do I move on from that?

You aren't a monster or incapable of change. All you can really do though is keep your side of the street clean; keep doing better, and give yourself grace. We are allowed to be kind to ourselves, even when no one else is. We can't change the past, and we can't change how it affects other people, nor their response to what happened. I know it's a sucky thing to accept, and accepting that doesn't make any of those permanent, dehumanizing judgements true.

You are who you are today; not who you were before you learned better. Set boundaries as you need to, and remember there will always be people who will support and love you. People are complicated and far from perfect. There is a future for you, and that future can be bright and peaceful. Just stick around and keep going, and you'll find it. ♡

Sylvia Plath, aged 22, in a letter to her mother (dated Sunday, 9 January 1955)

Khalym Kari Burke-Thomas, from ‘Carib Woman, 1818′

I am a creature of grief and dust, and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.

“He fell into a trance, and was enveloped in absolute horror.”