Dig Deeper

He asked me to stay

I watched at the others shuffled out

A disheveled collection of souls

All wondering what lies beneath us

Our fingers scraped from the surfaces scratched

They took their filled pails to sift and headed home

He asked me to stay

Checking the ground beneath me

If it would hold my heart in its weight

Or would I begin to sink and crumble

Was there soil to retain and berms to build

Could I grip a shovel and press the spade

And turn over what has longed to see the light

He asked me to stay

And I unearthed the layers

The cracked surface and the rocky terrain

Giving way to the darkness underground

Alive with peet and decay

Uncovered, dirty, and breathing

He asked me to stay

Long enough to see

That even in the roots beneath me

In the crevices of crumbled earth

There lies life worth holding

Letting the dirt sift through my fingers

And fall beneath my feet

He asked me to stay

And I shed light in my dark

Long enough to see the beauty below