The Ones We Love

We balanced tentatively

On a thin line

Dividing light from dark

As night descended

And the sun dipped below

A burning horizon-

As we gazed across a stream

At what lay beyond-

A mystery had formed

Within a land that we

Thought we knew

And as we dug deeper

Tearing through mud and muck

In hopes of finding something

Clean and bright

We found more lay within

A hidden something buried

Within bone and marrow

That we had overlooked

In our haste to find answers

Anywhere but within-

A belief that something was

Infinitely missing and not enough

To measure against the standards

Society set forth

And yet when we looked up

From the hole we had dug

It wasn’t in desperation to escape

To climb again to the top

But instead in awe

At what we had done-

We had dug our own grave

To save the ones we loved.

Katrina Thornley is a nature poet. novelist, and freelance journalist that resides in Rhode Island. She has two poetry collections currently published, a novel, as well as a short story anthology. Her poetry collections "Arcadians: Lullaby in Nature" and "Arcadians: Wooden Mystics" were inspired by a local park and life in her small rural town. You can find them on Amazon now!