![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the April 20, 2021 bonus fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siliconshaman. It has been sponsored by fuzzyred and scrubjayspeaks. This poem belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series.
"Half-understood and Half-remembered"
[0 A.E.]
The girls are young
when the world ends.
They are only Daisies
but they know a little
about camping out --
enough they don't die.
Even when their counselors
get sick and die, the girls don't.
They're sad and scared,
but they're alive and
they have each other.
The wolves are barely
better off than the girls.
They've grown up in
big pens with food
thrown in daily, but
when the food stops
coming, then they
dig their way out.
When they stumble
across each other,
everyone freezes
for just a moment.
Then the girls drop
to the ground and
pat their hands,
inviting the wolves
to come and play.
And the wolves do.
They all remember
each other from visits
at the Wolf Park.
It's not enough
to make up for
what they have
lost, but it's better
than nothing.
Their old names
no longer fit in
this new world, so
they name each other.
Full Moon is plump,
even when food is
scarce, and she is
their best forager,
knowing the plants.
Her favorite wolf
is Facelicker,
the alpha female,
mostly brown and white.
Long Legs is the fastest
among the girls and one
of their better hunters. She
is the older sister of Littlest,
their best scrounge, who
can get into almost anything.
Giggles is the strongest of
the girls and another of
their better hunters.
Her favorite wolf is
Big Sniff, the alpha male,
whose coat is mostly silver
streaked with black and cream.
They den in the woods and
under old bridges, with the girls
making shelters as best they can
and the wolves sharing their fur.
The wolves hardly know how
to hunt, but they're learning.
Hunger is a good teacher.
The girls were civilized once,
and they still scavenge for clothes
to keep themselves warm, but
they're learning to be wild.
Something in them awakens,
something old and strange.
Bone by bone, hair by hair,
the girls begin to change.
Through night dreams and
through events half-understood
and half-remembered, slowly,
Wild Woman comes back.
She seeps into the girls
with more than the memory
of mothers and counselors
who died trying to keep
them all safe in a world
suddenly turned savage.
She is something like
a goddess, and something
like an ancestor, and they
don't have any other name
for her than Wild Woman.
It is enough to go on with.
The girls learn to use
all of their senses to sweep
for dangers as they travel,
because the land is full of
hazards from spilled chemicals
to violent weather to predators
prowling in search of prey.
They follow fragments of
knowledge half-understood
and half-remembered, always
learning more as they grow.
The wolves have keener ears
and noses, but the girls have
fingers and thumbs, so it
all evens out in the end.
The girls are raised by wolves,
and the wolves are raised by girls,
and they become the Wolf Scouts.
They are stronger together than alone.
* * *
Notes:
The Wolf Scouts
Facelicker -- She is the alpha female wolf, her fur a mix of black, brown, and white. She leads the Wolf Scouts. Her favorite human is Full Moon.
Full Moon -- She has fair skin, amber eyes, and chestnut hair just past her shoulders. She gains weight easily and stays a little plump even when food is scarce. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. Her favorite wolf is Facelicker. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Full Moon is their best forager and knows the most about useful plants.
Facelicker and Full Moon
Long Legs -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length hair streaked in lighter and darker shades of blonde. She is tall and skinny. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. She is the older sister of Littlest. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Long Legs is the fastest runner among the girls and a good hunter.
Littlest -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long brown hair with just a little wave. She is skinny and growing slowly. She was 2 years old at the End and is 12 in the picture. She is the younger sister of Long Legs. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Littlest is their best scrounge, able to open almost anything, squeeze into small spaces, and find useful items even when hidden.
Long Legs sitting and Littlest standing
Big Sniff -- He is the alpha male wolf. His coat is mostly silver with streaks of black, cream, and white. His favorite Human is Giggles. They belong to the Wolf Scouts.
Giggles -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long wavy brown hair. She is short and muscular. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Giggles is the strongest among the girls and a good hunter.
Big Sniff and Giggles
* * *
"Bone by bone, hair by hair, Wild Woman comes back. Through night dreams, through events half understood and half remembered, Wild Woman comes back."
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
Girl Scout levels:
Daisies (Grades K-1)
Brownies (Grades 2-3)
Juniors (Grades 4-5)
Cadettes (Grades 6-8)
Seniors (Grades 9-10)
Ambassadors (Grades 10-12)
siliconshaman. It has been sponsored by fuzzyred and scrubjayspeaks. This poem belongs to the Daughters of the Apocalypse series."Half-understood and Half-remembered"
[0 A.E.]
The girls are young
when the world ends.
They are only Daisies
but they know a little
about camping out --
enough they don't die.
Even when their counselors
get sick and die, the girls don't.
They're sad and scared,
but they're alive and
they have each other.
The wolves are barely
better off than the girls.
They've grown up in
big pens with food
thrown in daily, but
when the food stops
coming, then they
dig their way out.
When they stumble
across each other,
everyone freezes
for just a moment.
Then the girls drop
to the ground and
pat their hands,
inviting the wolves
to come and play.
And the wolves do.
They all remember
each other from visits
at the Wolf Park.
It's not enough
to make up for
what they have
lost, but it's better
than nothing.
Their old names
no longer fit in
this new world, so
they name each other.
Full Moon is plump,
even when food is
scarce, and she is
their best forager,
knowing the plants.
Her favorite wolf
is Facelicker,
the alpha female,
mostly brown and white.
Long Legs is the fastest
among the girls and one
of their better hunters. She
is the older sister of Littlest,
their best scrounge, who
can get into almost anything.
Giggles is the strongest of
the girls and another of
their better hunters.
Her favorite wolf is
Big Sniff, the alpha male,
whose coat is mostly silver
streaked with black and cream.
They den in the woods and
under old bridges, with the girls
making shelters as best they can
and the wolves sharing their fur.
The wolves hardly know how
to hunt, but they're learning.
Hunger is a good teacher.
The girls were civilized once,
and they still scavenge for clothes
to keep themselves warm, but
they're learning to be wild.
Something in them awakens,
something old and strange.
Bone by bone, hair by hair,
the girls begin to change.
Through night dreams and
through events half-understood
and half-remembered, slowly,
Wild Woman comes back.
She seeps into the girls
with more than the memory
of mothers and counselors
who died trying to keep
them all safe in a world
suddenly turned savage.
She is something like
a goddess, and something
like an ancestor, and they
don't have any other name
for her than Wild Woman.
It is enough to go on with.
The girls learn to use
all of their senses to sweep
for dangers as they travel,
because the land is full of
hazards from spilled chemicals
to violent weather to predators
prowling in search of prey.
They follow fragments of
knowledge half-understood
and half-remembered, always
learning more as they grow.
The wolves have keener ears
and noses, but the girls have
fingers and thumbs, so it
all evens out in the end.
The girls are raised by wolves,
and the wolves are raised by girls,
and they become the Wolf Scouts.
They are stronger together than alone.
* * *
Notes:
The Wolf Scouts
Facelicker -- She is the alpha female wolf, her fur a mix of black, brown, and white. She leads the Wolf Scouts. Her favorite human is Full Moon.
Full Moon -- She has fair skin, amber eyes, and chestnut hair just past her shoulders. She gains weight easily and stays a little plump even when food is scarce. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. Her favorite wolf is Facelicker. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Full Moon is their best forager and knows the most about useful plants.
Facelicker and Full Moon
Long Legs -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length hair streaked in lighter and darker shades of blonde. She is tall and skinny. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. She is the older sister of Littlest. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Long Legs is the fastest runner among the girls and a good hunter.
Littlest -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long brown hair with just a little wave. She is skinny and growing slowly. She was 2 years old at the End and is 12 in the picture. She is the younger sister of Long Legs. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Littlest is their best scrounge, able to open almost anything, squeeze into small spaces, and find useful items even when hidden.
Long Legs sitting and Littlest standing
Big Sniff -- He is the alpha male wolf. His coat is mostly silver with streaks of black, cream, and white. His favorite Human is Giggles. They belong to the Wolf Scouts.
Giggles -- She has fair skin, brown eyes, and long wavy brown hair. She is short and muscular. She was 6 years old at the End and is 16 in the picture. They belong to the Wolf Scouts. Giggles is the strongest among the girls and a good hunter.
Big Sniff and Giggles
* * *
"Bone by bone, hair by hair, Wild Woman comes back. Through night dreams, through events half understood and half remembered, Wild Woman comes back."
-- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
Girl Scout levels:
Daisies (Grades K-1)
Brownies (Grades 2-3)
Juniors (Grades 4-5)
Cadettes (Grades 6-8)
Seniors (Grades 9-10)
Ambassadors (Grades 10-12)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-23 11:41 pm (UTC)I wonder if they'll learn to do that - or use other hand signals?
I'm pretty sure they'll all be fluent in wolf body language - not sure about the human, if they're 10 years out of practice.
Was Littlest on the Scout trip proper (chaperone-parent didn't have a sitter?), or did they go back to a settled area for her?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-26 01:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-26 02:23 am (UTC)Most people (barring avid campers) would likely prefer to not take a two year old camping.
I still think single parent who is chaperoning and couldn't find a sitter is likely...
But family who loves camping is also a possibility.
And, it is a possibility that would give someone in the group some more slightly advanced wilderness skills...which would help all of them /including the toddler/ survive for a full decade with no human adults.
Seriously, untrained long-term wilderness survival is an excersise in desperation. If you have young kids, or anyone with any sort of special need, take it up to eleven.
Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-26 07:50 am (UTC)That seems prudent.
>> Most people (barring avid campers) would likely prefer to not take a two year old camping. <<
The campers I have known were family campers, who camped at all ages.
>> I still think single parent who is chaperoning and couldn't find a sitter is likely...
But family who loves camping is also a possibility.<<
Both possible.
>>And, it is a possibility that would give someone in the group some more slightly advanced wilderness skills...which would help all of them /including the toddler/ survive for a full decade with no human adults.<<
Agreed.
>>Seriously, untrained long-term wilderness survival is an excersise in desperation. If you have young kids, or anyone with any sort of special need, take it up to eleven.<<
True, but they weren't in pure wilderness. They had a lot of leftovers to scavenge, and that was easiest in the first few years After. Abandoned roadside stores, cars, farmhouses, etc. were everywhere. They didn't need to be completely self-supporting immediately, they just needed to not all die and buy themselves some time.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-26 02:23 pm (UTC)So a bit easier than most wilderness survival adventures. Still, something like living in a bombed-out warzone or making a run for the border with little ones (or in this case, apocalypse scrounging with no adults and a toddler) isn't something people would choose if they feel they have a better choice.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-27 12:13 am (UTC)A bit easier -- and of course they had the wolves for protection and food-sharing. Wolves can run down rabbits, girls can open cans, it evens out.
>> Still, something like living in a bombed-out warzone or making a run for the border with little ones (or in this case, apocalypse scrounging with no adults and a toddler) isn't something people would choose if they feel they have a better choice.<<
"No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."
http://www.januarytwenty.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Home-Poem-by-Warsan-Shire.pdf
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-27 02:25 am (UTC)I've read the poem - I think it was in the notes of one of your earlier stories.
I know people who have done that. And for every quiet story of something /bad/ that I hear as confession or tangential aside or words said in tranquil anger that amount to 'this happening was/is not right' there's probably fifty more stories I don't hear.
Man, I was brave, sailing on graves,
Don't think I didn't notice those tombstones disguised as waves,
Immigrants (We Get The Job Done) from the Hamilton musical
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_35a7sn6ds
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-27 02:48 am (UTC)Sadly so. But it's good that you're there to help.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-02-15 02:20 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2021-05-26 03:10 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-05-26 03:41 am (UTC)$10/hr x 24 x 2 = $480 for a paid sitter over the weekend. Unpaid would likely require a relative or a friend who has also parented small children /and/ who does not have a job (such as retail) that would require weekend hours.
I used to volunteer with an adult education class (with a rather informal group culture). Students arrainging for individual childcare would be difficult for many reasons (social, monetary, linguistic/cultural...). It was usually easier to have folks bring in their kids and then sort it out in various ways, depending on age and number and intrests of the kids:
- a tiny baby can stay right with mom (or sometimes dad), someone else can watch for a few minutes if the parent has to step out
- a few younger kids can color, or run around the room, or whatever, with varying folks keeping an eye out
- an individual kid can be entertained with a topic of interest (art, science) or given someone's phone to watch an educational tv show or play a game. (Older kids being entertained thusly may require less frequent intervention than younger ones, unless they are being directly taught a skill.)
I think that there was only one case where it would have been flat-out impossible for someone to bring their kids to the actual classroom, and we worked out an accommodation so they could still get the neccesary information. (Long story.)
People were also occasionally asked to keep contagious kids at home until they were no longer contagious.
...and we did have someone be all disapproving about someone bringing an energetic (cheerful! friendly! polite for her age!) preschooler. But none of the rest of us cared, beyond being irritated at the disapproving person.
If we required childcare during class, half the students - mostly the women - would disappear. And honestly, a happy kid who isn't screaming or hitting people isn't a problem.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-24 02:29 am (UTC)Hopefully they had time to keep up their reading skills. Though improving them may take until they are in regular contact with other groups. Because even *simple* reading and writing skills are just too useful.
Their culture is apt to be more than a bit different from both "normal" humans *and* wolves. But I'm sure it'll work for them.
Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-24 02:38 am (UTC)I think so too. :D People are welcome to prompt for more if they wish.
>> Hopefully they had time to keep up their reading skills. Though improving them may take until they are in regular contact with other groups. Because even *simple* reading and writing skills are just too useful.<<
Probably not. They might be able to read simple things like road signs or warning labels, but I doubt much more than that. If anyone is interested in more, though, they might learn it later as they start trading with other people.
>>Their culture is apt to be more than a bit different from both "normal" humans *and* wolves. But I'm sure it'll work for them.<<
It seems to be an unusual mix of both human and wolf cultures, but it does work for them. The inexperience of both groups worked to their advantage in meshing as equals, rather than one being absorbed into the other.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-24 11:14 am (UTC)But this diversity should help everyone. Any group that survives has to be doing *something* right.
"There are four and twenty ways
of writing tribal lays
and every single one of them is right"
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-05-24 06:26 pm (UTC)That's true. Small towns will probably retain the most of Before cultures, but so many people lived in the cities, those refugees have had a huge impact.
>> But this diversity should help everyone. Any group that survives has to be doing *something* right. <<
Probably, although it's possible to have a rapacious society preying on others. There seems to be much less of that here than in most postapocalyptic settings. Fewer males means less aggression overall, and people realize that they can't afford to waste lives anymore. While the population still numbers in the millions, they're spread thinly now, and each small community needs to maintain its numbers.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-24 04:59 am (UTC)You'd probably enjoy Wild Angel by Pat Murphy if you haven't read it already.
Hmm ...
Date: 2021-05-26 08:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-26 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-05-26 02:18 am (UTC)Maybe a warning on stories explicitly discussing kids & set in that timeframe?
Maybe also a warning on stories that mention watching people die despite best efforts...? (That particular concept has bothered me in relation to some current RL issues. These stories themselves don't usually bother me, and I know apocalypse means death, but just in case someone has a stronger reaction...?)
Overall I think the warnings in this corner of cyberspace are pretty good.
Anyone else got any thoughts...?
Well ...
Date: 2021-05-26 02:40 am (UTC)I was a Girl Scout for a while, a bad one, but I was the only one with anything approaching survival skills -- including the counselors. 0_o I imagined a more capable troop for this context.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-05-26 03:52 am (UTC)(He and his best friend were trained by his best friend's grandfather, who'd learned traditional skills from /his/ grandfather.)
For anyone who doesn't know, the guy is a wilderness survival expert, who can waltz into the wilderness with literally nothing and stay as long as he wants. He also gets called to track lost people in the woods, fleeing criminals hoofing it to Mexico, etc. And he holds classes where he teaches these skills.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2021-07-09 08:23 pm (UTC)That said, having met some daisies...this is wonderfully eerie, and I'm glad the Wolf Scouts have a pack of their own.