We will have forever

I returned. You were gone. So much lost. Smiling blue shirts Linger beside the ruins.

Where are you Maria? I searched the hills where we walked. Scoured towns asking. Junker pilots saw the red crosses On your convoy. They straffed it anyway. Tell me you weren't there. You were only nineteen. Amor mio! Amor mio!

Maria, the earth is harder. Rocks sharper. Hills steeper. The stream where we rested Polluted by the memories of bodies Caught in ambush. Betrayed. Seven of twenty escaped. All wounded.

Your brother laughed at them. Spit at them. Stood in the light flaring over the hills. Sprayed the ridge with covering fire. His outline stretched up the walls. We escaped in the path of his falling shadow. Miguel and I buried him under the old oak.

Shall I join you Maria? We can sit with your brother. There are stories to tell. Wild tales. Soft nights. Gentle arms. We will have forever.

- Charles Martell

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