Tears: A Biography

I don't think I have posted this before. It comes from a time over two decades ago when God was in a breaking and melting mood.

Tears

Glistening drops of liquid gold
Announcing stories begging to be told

Cantankerous, salty little drops
Refusing to come, refusing to stop

Each one a prisoner of my heart
Seeking opportunities to start

Wanting to escape from me
Return to their mother the sea

When I was a little child
My heart was tender and mild

Tears were always there
In touch with my every care

I cried when I had a scrape
And when they removed the bandage tape

I cried when I wanted my way
Begging to go or seeking to stay

I cried when I’d said all I could
Longing simply to be understood

I cried when I felt rejected
Hungering to be accepted

Tears were always there
As normal as breathing air

Warm, then cold upon my cheek
Freedom from them I could not seek

All I could do was bury my head
Deep into the spread on my bed

Desperately wanting someone to care
Yet strangely content in my solace there

Ashamed of my childish tears
Overwhelmed by inner fears

Then it happened, how, I can’t explain
I suddenly knew I could refrain

I took control of my inner strife
Discovered a whole new life

When I felt my eyes begin to burn
I held my breath, a simple trick I learned

I assured myself I didn’t have to cry
I could hold it in until I die

Before long it wasn’t even a fight
I had my emotions bottled tight

Latter I discover the trauma of being a “man”
Emotions are essential to being human

I may have locked them in
But what did I really win?

When I stopped my tears and gained control
I closed the windows of my soul

I locked myself inside a cage
Outer peace, inner rage

Only God could set me free
So I gave them all to him, exposed the inner me

Now tears may trickle or come in a flood
They’re a part of me, they’re in my blood

JDJ
December, 1988