>>64476713
I didn't factor or think about surviving casualties or people who left either.
>>64476697
“After the Iron Years”
They don’t speak of it much .
When they do, it’s quiet —
a nod over coffee,
a comment about machinery,
never about the banners.
They remember the sound in factories,
not the speeches.
Both learned.
Now they meet in conference rooms,
in airports, in the clean light of invention.
A German engineer running his thumb
along the edge of a Japanese tool —
both of them knowing how discipline costs.
There’s a respect there
that doesn’t need to be said aloud.
Sometimes, over a drink,
one of them will mention the old days.
Then they raise their glasses,
and let the silence do the rest.
