"What's that word between hatred and adoration?
She whispered into my ear

"I don't know," I said
"We lost it somewhere between empathy and selfishness."

Like the way
The daylight plays against our skin
And mingles with our eyes

Then escapes

Away somewhere between
The earth
And its core,
Somewhere between our skeletons
And the souls they enfold

That's where it went.
That's the way
We lost the word.

We watched it run away
Into the melting dawn
Of wholesome vulnerability
Where vanity, loss, and ignorance rule

Then it tumbled into a jar
Swimming with tears
Of judgement, fear, and insanity

It slithered its way to the brim
Swollen, like a tic, with the blood
Of the murdered, the betrayed, and the scorned

Then it found us

And it fell onto the hinges of its 'h'
It rested, solemnly, on the curl of its 'y'
And asked for nothing, but salvation.