we are not the girls we were

For the Sisters L

we are not the girls we were
now with sorrow-hollowed faces
and sufferings’ silver threads
mingling with the gold
yet we would not be the women we are
with laughter-deepened eyes
and arms made strong
by love’s labours lived
were it not for the wild wonder
writ in the scars upon our hearts:
we are carried through every grief
that haunts the dark