Tears of Purgatory

You want to know what tears are?
What do they mean at all?
Sorrow hurt grief mourning
Or shed over
Simplest of things
Sweet nothings
Dreams memories requiem
Or hunger for what could've been
Yet will never be.

Have you felt pulled apart
By forces beyond control
Human fragility
Fear and prejudice
The mean and petty
The shallow betrayals
That nevertheless rankle
Hurt in your dreams
Make ears ring with screams
Agony that makes ni sense
The monstrous moments
Of feeling
A failure a wreck an oddity
A naked being
Exposed
In utter loneliness
Wretched condemned
Daily exhorted
"Be brave, Go on.
The extra mile"
When strength fails
Bones flail
Eye sockets ache
With the weight
Of dreams slashed
And mangled
Torn beyond
Even your own
Recognition
Heavy water pumped up
By an emotional purgatory.

Are these liquid details
Enough
To earn a tear
On your lashes?

Put it on my palm.
I will accept it
As Holy water.
And annoint me
And other unwanted souls.

Your compassion
Is church
And temple enough
For me.

A simple child dwells
And she is ready to
Smile with glee.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017