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