TEARDROPS

My heart, heavy with gnawing pang,

Smarting for being defanged

Most definitely with misty, sullen and swollen eyes,

For each additional name to this book

I dare not look at, or too frightened to open.

It lists close ones gone to netherworld,

Expected but reviled event, always shocking.

Absence from this world, reminder of our own frailty,

Death, reality so difficult to engage,

Ultimate knot so difficult to disengage.

We readily pick polluted air over rigor mortis,

Our addiction to visual, aural and tactile cues is such,

Any separation, even temporary, is a hardship.

Abomination of permanent separation is unfathomable.

Pauper or rich, young or old, a mortified soul cries.

Shedding of tears, spontaneous emotional display

Unique among humans, universal sign

Of extreme or pulverizing state,

Be it a cataract-strewn soul, mired in anguish,

Dolor far more searing than physical pain

Because it responds not to analgesia,

Or overwhelming joy with tears

As innocent bystanders pulsing feel-good sensation.

More often than not, tears are shed for sadness,

Over a lost one, or a broken heart for any other reason.

For memories to be kept extant by nurture,

Shed tears need be limited in time and space

They do serve a very useful purpose short term

But long term, they nourish not,

But take one to gallows, during many morrows.

It’s human to despair over a close one’s loss

It’s human to rebound from an emotional loss.

REYNALD ALTEMA, MD

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