Solo Tear

Solo Tear

written by: Michael Ball

@whirred

I am one. Am I the only one
who revels in the dolor…

of a single tear, burning and
salty, cutting its path down
my right cheek chinward?

An abrupt rivulet like a massive
raindrop on the windowpane.

I am perhaps past-ripe and showing
trivial joys at grandsons
(or even over dog antics) and
surely to soft words in passing
from a spouse of time-shrouded years.

And time triggered…time was
it took lust or anger or other passion
to squeeze that single drop falling
from uvea to cheek to philtrum.

Only a few drops from an eye fill
that mythic groove above the lip,
that vile vial reserved for a love potion.

Yes, shuffling toward dotage, I rejoice
in a tear expelled by command of my heart.
Let it trace a sincere feeling on my face.

As there is no shame in honest work,
there can be none in displayed emotion.

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Michael Ball

Michael Ball scrambled from daily and weekly papers through business and technical pubs. Satisfaction and feeling like a writer came through blogging and podcasting, mostly political. Born in OK and raised in rural WV, he became more citified in Manhattan and Boston. He joined the Hyde Park Poets Workshop two years ago, and will never again write a manual or help system. He has moderate success placing poems in print and online.

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