104. Every War Had Them
Every War Had Them
The women who got here first.
Some of them were scarcely more than girls.
Others wore maps of memory across
their aged skin, long silver hair cascading
like water down their backs.
They found one another in these fields,
learned to make families out of each other
when their own loved ones were nowhere
to be found. I know this because in those
early days, I had grown close to the ways
of the spirits inside these meadows.
Styx may not have understood this yet,
but I had learned to be observant
as all children of dark situations do.
So I watched at first as the women
gathered and sat together in circles.
I watched as they told stories
and sang songs from where they came.
It was these vibrant tales and lyrics
that drew me closer to them every day.
And when one day
I was finally close enough,
they did not fall silent.
Instead, they simply shifted
and made space in their circle for me.