TEARS

Tears
Age 22-32, Durham/Apex, North Carolina, 1966-1976
-- This is one poem, in an autobiographical series of poems, that I posted here at WriteSpike. Go to my stories section for others. They are in chronological order. --

At first your tears
were like a doorway
that led me to you
a way to comfort you
something that drew us together

then your tears became an enclosure
that surrounded us
because when you did not want
me to understand -
your tears stopped us
and I held you in silence

toward the end
your tears were a wall
I wanted to reach you
but your weeping blocked my way

finally they were like the weather
they came so often and so full
I thought of them like rain
knowing that within an hour or a day
they would be gone

so before we parted
your tears meant nothing at all