Tears

I saw a tear escape her eye… when she whispered out his name and I remember thinking why… and wondering what tragedy she overcame. She suffered a loss I did not know… a loss she couldn’t disguise It happened a long time ago… I could see it in her eyes. I imagine a tear is how our heart speaks when we can’t find words to explain when a memory has made us weak… when we’re overcome with pain. I wonder when we hold back our tears… suppress even one teardrop If it’s because we have a hidden fear… once they start…our tears won’t stop. That once the dam is broken… and our tears start falling down a terror goes unspoken… that in our own tears…we will drown. For suffering sometimes fall like rain… a word, a smell, a thought can bring it on and we’re reminded by our pain how grief is not a sprint but a marathon. Perhaps that’s why we have an ocean of tears… for in any dark days we have ahead when a memory stirs and grief appears we’ll have unending tears to shed. I wonder…how many of us harbor a fear that at the end of any minute…any day a relentless stream of our own tears are but one memory away? At the time I offered her a smile… to give her strength for a sadness I’ve never known knowing all the while some griefs we’re meant to bear alone.