Tear ©

a tear is a little lake 

at the corner of an eye

that pushes itself up 

from the heart. it is

a droplet of memory,

an exhausted dream 

and a moist sign of a 

tired soul. I often sit 

at night giving thanks

to the heavens for life

blessed with more than

the world imagined for

one born in the barrio,

though the grayer my 

years the more tears I

shed for the cost to so

many just to push me 

over wall after wall. I

try in solitude to explain

tears that fall to the earth

like shadows,  shimmer 

in dim light like ghosts

and loosen like a broken

damn when no one is 

around to see. there are

times when piety grabs

hold of me and I think

God in heaven cries for

us on earth yet I cannot

return a single tear for

the gone whom I carry

inside of me in a world

that cannot stretch its

length to heaven.  

h. j. Recinos