layers and connections between layers

This is where we learned love and where we learned depth and where
we learned layers and where we learned connections between
layers.

We learned and we loved the black sandshell, the ash, the american
bittern, the harelip sucker, the yellow bullhead, the beech,
the great blue heron, the dobsonfly larva, the water penny
larva, the birch, the redhead, the white catspaw, the elephant
ear, the buckeye, the king eider, the river darter, the sauger,
the burning bush, the common merganser, the limpet, the
mayfly nymph, the cedar, the turkey vulture, the spectacle
case, the flat floater, the cherry, the red tailed hawk, the
longnose gar, the brook trout, the chestnut, the killdeer,
the river snail, the giant floater, the chokeberry, gray catbird,
the rabbitsfoot, the slenderhead darter, the crabapple, the
american robin, the creek chub, the stonefly nympth,
the dogwood, the warbling vireo, the sow bug, the elktoe,
the elm, the marsh wren, the monkeyface, the central
mudminnow, the fir, the gray-cheeked thrush, the white bass,
the predaceous diving beetle, the hawthorn, the scud, the
salamander mussel, the hazelnut, the warbler, the mapleleaf,
the american eel, the hemlock, the speckled chub, the whirligig
beetle larva, the hickory, the sparrow, the caddisfly larva,
the fluted shell, the horse chestnut, the wartyback, the white
heelsplitter, the larch, the pine grosbeak, the brook stickleback,
the river redhorse, the locust, the ebonyshelf, the giant water
bug, the maple, the eastern phoebe, the white sucker, the creek
heelsplitter, the mulberry, the crane fly larva, the mountain
madtom, the oak, the bank swallow, the wabash pigtoe, the
damselfly larva, the pine, the stonecat, the kidneyshell,
the plum, the midge larva, the eastern sand darter, the rose,
the purple wartyback, the narrow-winged damselfly, the
spruce, the pirate perch, the threehorn wartyback, the sumac,
the black fly larva, the redside dace, the tree-of-heaven, the
orange-foot pimpleback, the dragonfly larva, the walnut,
the gold fish, the butterfly, the striped fly larva, the willow,
the freshwater drum, the ohio pigtoe, the warmouth, the
mayfly nymph, the clubshell.

And this was just the beginning of the list.

Our hearts took on many things.

Juliana Spahr, "Gentle Now, Don't Add to Heartache"