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Ollar & Smith – August 2025

Carol A. Smith and Malyssa Kaye Ollar traded art and words. Malyssa shared this image, titled “Two Hearts (Homage to Frida),” with Carol:

a painting/quilt that includes a painting of a young woman and a girl, sitting and holding hands, with two hearts on their chests connected by a red string

In response, Carol wrote this poem:

The Quilt

I packed it away. 
Me sitting there all long-faced.
A heart no longer pink for romance
shoving thick slush 
through jagged arteries.
Sideways glancing at simpler days
when I almost believed 
I could be Snow White . . .
. . . in pearls.
Love under each piece, no doubt,
but no daughter welcomes foul fortune:
Sorry, but your princess days are few.

Stitches won’t be silenced. 
You knew I’d hear someday.
You saw it in my downcast eyes,
more honest than the princess dress.
And those prescient boots . . . 
. . .  blood red.
Perfect for sloshing through life’s mess.
Was it the boots or the grass-green spread 
I chose that told you I’d be 
safely grounded,
eventually?

Wise to let her hold the scissors.
I would have cut her loose long ago
when I stopped admitting my heart
favors lace and pink T-shirts.
Yet, the lifeline loops,
back-stitching a bracelet . . .
. . . blood red.
Perfect for holding me steady
as I reach out to yesterday.
You watching from above,
resting in my lap.

* * * * *

Carol shared this poem with Malyssa:

Life Choices

At what age does a tree veer
from its naive path of straight and tall
to a more seasoned strong and resilient?

Does it bemoan its inexorable leaning,
curse the need to adjust with every
pelting wind and storm?

Does it feel the pain of its gnarled trunk,
grieve the loss of symmetry as branches
grow brittle and snap?

When, one spring, it doesn’t don its jewelry,
is it dementia? Exhaustion? Or did it decide,
that winter, to give up?

In response, Malyssa made this art, titled “The Move (Life Choices)”:

A painting of three young women in white dresses, in front yards of small houses at sunset, picking up a fruit from the ground, while one is being wrapped up in roots.