SISTER OF MY HEART

Dear sister of my heart,
when we learned nu shu,
in the time of foot-binding,
we vowed to be laotong forever,
and so I write to tell you
that my smallest son has died,
and the heart has gone out
of my husband.

I am writing you in the time of
the Chrysanthemum Moon.
As the daylight shortens,
the chill of the evening
mirrors my heart,
with no small child
to tuck into bed.

Write back to me,
before the first snows
of winter.
Speak to me
all that is in your heart,
that I may be able
to go on living.

"We tell each other stories in order TO LIVE.” Joan Didion

* Nu shu is the secret language women in the Hunan province of China developed, in feudal times, in order to communicate with each other - a written language no men could read.

*laotong - a relationship of sworn sisters,  providing lifelong support to women, whose lives were circumscribed, in those times, within their traditional roles. 

*The Chrysanthemum Moon is seen in the month of September.

For my prompt at Real Toads: to write in the voice of a woman in feudal China, who communicated in the secret language of Nu shu. Or to speak in the voice of any creature.