i dug. we dug. fingers wet and dirtied with the mulch we pushed aside in the darkness, under the light of a partial moon. layers of dust and dirt accumulated over the hundreds of hours that passed so slowly and so painfully at times...layers covering a once-was, my history, the past. we dug and we dug. and found no sign of the weight that i'd left there, in that space, under that tall tree. the burden that i deposited there months ago on that wet december evening, winds and rain whipping across my face, gone. gone. what was broken, healing.