Member-only story
A Taxonomy of Tears
A poem
We’re in the car a while. You resolve not to talk but to listen,
but she asks questions, and you answer.
The emotions begin to spill out,
choking the words sometimes, but
you are powerless to stop them.
Not emotionally safe, they report,
your ex-wife, your daughter, too,
though she said so first in those words.
You realize they are not talking about themselves.
They are describing the way you are.
These are tears of shame.
That those you love the most regard your love
warily, with dread, a fact you cannot bear to view
any more than you can stare into the sun,
so hot it burns, like the tears that blind you.
So I left, and I fear a return, she says,
no matter how much you understand now,
and how willing you are to change,
and how much she cares for you.
The risk is simply too great.
These are tears of loss.
Images of joy and happiness decompose,
a future fades away. They do not belong
in the…
