Every Tear

Every tear you shed is sacred because it means you don’t have to carry that hurt any longer. ~ Jhe T

This bottomless pit of feeling
seems the epitome of awful,
a fearsome entity to be despised,
to be avoided, to be shunned.
We’ve been taught all our lives
to hide the emotions, to “man up”
even if we’re women, that tears
are a sign of weakness, subject to pity.
So we cry alone, medicating ourselves
with our drug of choice, sugar,
alcohol, meth, gaming, sex…
But they lie. The well-meaning folk,
the advice givers, the rescuers.
Tears are not only lubricant for eyes
and an autoimmune aid to defeat germs.
Tears are a way to shed the burdens
we’ve carried all these years.
Tears can wash the millstone away
and leave us washed clean, pure, at peace.