ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2023-08-02 05:26 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2023-08-02 05:26 am
Entry tags:
Poem: "Soldier's Heart"
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by prompts from rix_scaedu, see_also_friend, and mama_kestrel. It also fills the "high pain tolerance" square in my 8-1-23 card for the New Adventures Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Soldier's Heart"
[1866]
The War Between the States
left lives and families shattered.
The North had lost many good men,
and the South had lost so many
that it struggled to function at all.
Numerous women were left widows,
children were left orphans, and
girls had few marriage prospects.
The men who survived the war
were often broken in body and
spirit by the wounds that they had
sustained in combat or otherwise.
Many of them could no longer work,
left with missing limbs or weak chests.
Soldier's heart was a common affliction,
its skittering pulse and shortened breath
turning once healthy men into invalids
ashamed of their faltering health.
Others had learned a little too well
how to ignore their body's complaints,
so they could no longer tell if they had
been burned or cut or otherwise injured.
One fellow went hours with a broken arm
before noticing that it no longer worked right.
Everything was in turmoil. Some Southerners
wanted to move north where it was less damaged,
while some Northerners went to take advantage
of the ravaged land and economy to the south.
Some industrious women decided to try
solving the problems simply by putting
the pieces together in a new configuration.
There were not enough men, they reasoned,
so the women could share what men they
had and that would be better than nothing.
The wounded men needed help doing
many things, but they could still contribute
to a household in some other ways.
In Boston, line marriage was legal.
So the young maidens got together
with older widows who had lost
their husbands, brothers, and sons.
They gathered up veterans who
had lost their health in some way.
In this new relationship, there were
enough women to care for the men,
and enough men to do their duty
for the women who wanted children.
The oldest of the wives became
the memory keepers of the line,
telling stories to the children so
they would know where the family
had come from and what it meant.
It wasn't always easy, but they
found that in time, they could
hold each other hard enough for
their broken pieces to stick together.
* * *
Notes:
"Soldier's heart" is an old term for PTSD from the Civil War era.
The War Between the States is one name for the Civil War.
Extreme casualties caused problems in both the North and the South, although the South was hit much harder. Women found it harder to get married, and even the surviving men weren't always fully functional.
Per "The Pursuit of Happiness," line marriage first became legal in Terramagne-Boston, Massachusetts.
rix_scaedu, see_also_friend, and mama_kestrel. It also fills the "high pain tolerance" square in my 8-1-23 card for the New Adventures Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."Soldier's Heart"
[1866]
The War Between the States
left lives and families shattered.
The North had lost many good men,
and the South had lost so many
that it struggled to function at all.
Numerous women were left widows,
children were left orphans, and
girls had few marriage prospects.
The men who survived the war
were often broken in body and
spirit by the wounds that they had
sustained in combat or otherwise.
Many of them could no longer work,
left with missing limbs or weak chests.
Soldier's heart was a common affliction,
its skittering pulse and shortened breath
turning once healthy men into invalids
ashamed of their faltering health.
Others had learned a little too well
how to ignore their body's complaints,
so they could no longer tell if they had
been burned or cut or otherwise injured.
One fellow went hours with a broken arm
before noticing that it no longer worked right.
Everything was in turmoil. Some Southerners
wanted to move north where it was less damaged,
while some Northerners went to take advantage
of the ravaged land and economy to the south.
Some industrious women decided to try
solving the problems simply by putting
the pieces together in a new configuration.
There were not enough men, they reasoned,
so the women could share what men they
had and that would be better than nothing.
The wounded men needed help doing
many things, but they could still contribute
to a household in some other ways.
In Boston, line marriage was legal.
So the young maidens got together
with older widows who had lost
their husbands, brothers, and sons.
They gathered up veterans who
had lost their health in some way.
In this new relationship, there were
enough women to care for the men,
and enough men to do their duty
for the women who wanted children.
The oldest of the wives became
the memory keepers of the line,
telling stories to the children so
they would know where the family
had come from and what it meant.
It wasn't always easy, but they
found that in time, they could
hold each other hard enough for
their broken pieces to stick together.
* * *
Notes:
"Soldier's heart" is an old term for PTSD from the Civil War era.
The War Between the States is one name for the Civil War.
Extreme casualties caused problems in both the North and the South, although the South was hit much harder. Women found it harder to get married, and even the surviving men weren't always fully functional.
Per "The Pursuit of Happiness," line marriage first became legal in Terramagne-Boston, Massachusetts.
Thoughts
Yeah, that figures.
>> In the Battle of Gettysburg, the main injuries were from cannonballs. A cannonball's force creates terrifying damage to human bodies. And they had no medical treatment at all. No pain relief, nothing to prevent massive infection. So most of the soldiers who died at Gettysburg died in indescribable pain, raving with feverish delirium.<<
Well, it depends. The wider context of time and place had a variety of pain relief options including opiates. The armies had medics. The question is whether one was able to get supplies, how long they'd last, and whether the medical tent had been shelled, on any given occasion. Also triage was in very early stages, which meant the wounded were often sorted by rank rather than severity; and so was medical neutrality, which meant the medics weren't necessarily safe and often wouldn't pick up enemy casualties. So while some people got decent-for-then treatment, many did not.
It also depends whether you're talking about a solid cannonball, exploding shell, chainshot, grapeshot, or "Fuck it, we're outta ammo, shovel some gravel down the barrel." Solid cannonballs rarely leave survivors, but grapeshot at much beyond point blank range is intended to maximize casualties.
... my dad's a history teacher, I grew up reading this stuff.
>> This is why I threw up. He was checking how strong my shields were - but I hardly ever use them.<<
A logical but far from compassionate test. I tell people "Think of a place you find 'creepy' and go there. Blink your shields on and off to see if you can feel a difference." It's usually enough to detect but rarely enough to harm.
>> You're basing the stories of the women who survived the Big One on the history of women who survived the Civil War.<<
Yep, I've done that, although not just that war. I've used a variety of refugee experiences to color the Big One diaspora.
>> I have known a few women who were born big and strong enough to do men's heavy labor - one of them was a dock worker, a "stevedore" lifting hundred-pound sacks of stuff onto loaders.<<
I know the type.
>> There were women who could chop down trees, turn them into firewod-size pieces, and then plow a field.<<
Lumberjills! Terramagne has a good tradition of them.
>> And then there are those of us who understand how stuff works, and make the most out of our limited physical strength by using leverage and gravity and whatever came to hand.<<
Also true. Spotted a few taking that tack in the Bear Tunnels.
Re: Thoughts
Okay, boys, we've run out of cannonballs. See those rounded rocks over there? I think one will fit down the barrel of this gun... (sound of black powder being poured into a cannon)
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Hm, I wonder if soldier-ghosts might have gone elsewhere due to different death rituals or beliefs, i.e. the warrior ghosts staying on their home ground to defend their people, but some of the soldier-ghosts attaching to graves or something.
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Neither would I, but some people are really into that. Stone Fist pounced on the chance to become Channing's spirit guide, just so he could scream at the guy.
>> Hm, I wonder if soldier-ghosts might have gone elsewhere due to different death rituals or beliefs, i.e. the warrior ghosts staying on their home ground to defend their people, but some of the soldier-ghosts attaching to graves or something.<<
Any of them are free to partake of whatever options they have prearranged, are offered then or later, or can access by whatever means. But if you kill hundreds of people on a field, you tend to get a wide range of responses -- it's quite common for enough to stick around, or leave strong enough imprints, to create a "field of ghosts" effect, even if most of them actually moved on.
Re: Thoughts
Fair enough. I still think you might get different proportions, depending on personality, faith, home ground, etc. If, say 2x as many of the local ghosts decided to stick around because they are local, that would skew the sample.
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Out of grounding, centering, and shielding I've noticed that almost everyone is good at one and bad at one; the third can be good, middling, or bad. I'm good at shielding and centering but not grounding.
You might try material resources for shielding, and given your preferences, I'd go with an artifact that you can physically take off and put on as desired. Pendant, ring, that sort of things. Plenty of shielding jewelry to choose from.
>> I mostly do a "mirror sphere" shield - anything that comes towards me bounces back in the direction it came from, and also recharged my own battery a bit.<<
Suitable for most purposes, but won't stand up to a heavy hit.
>> I learned that from a mad swordsmith who worked at Princeton University's Fusion Power Lab. (The one time I picked up a knife he'd made, I could feel it trying to adjust to my hand.) <<
That is so awesome. :D
Re: Thoughts
The mad swordsmith was actually a Vietnam vet whose PTSD got tangled in his magic. He died of some kind of cancer related to having been exposed to Agent Orange. But, gods, when his magic was in full flare he was MAGNIFICENT!
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If I am an empath, I wonder which one(s) I'd be good or bad at.
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That explained a lot about the state of America's mental health system, because it was for the Psychology department.
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If that is the case, maybe I am bad at shielding.
I wonder what the symptoms of being unshielded around incompatible or toxic people are? Probably like dumping toxic waste on your soul, ugh.
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I might just do that...sounds like an interesting possibility.
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