Day 23

Sometimes women cry. There are a lot of reasons for crying, and some women cry without reason. I am not good at crying. I’m fine with that, but people think I need to cry. Why? Who knows? As long as I am able to feel, that’s all that’s important. But I can feel the emotions for which women cry. I just prefer not to show them. I do, however, think the way we approach women’s tears is a sign of an unhealthy society. Hillary Clinton cried! Oh no! Will horrors never end! So tonight, a woman is crying…somewhere.

WATERFALL

 Like a waterfall
A woman’s tears,
Her grief transparent,
Her loss extreme.

What has she lost?
Her son, perhaps,
Sent home from war
In a flag-covered coffin.

A husband?
Seized before his time
By cancer
Or an industrial accident.

Perhaps her father.
An aging man
Caught short with dementia,
Unrecognizable at the end.

Why must it be a man?
We always assume
A woman’s tears
Are for loss of…him.

A man who gave her a name,
Or the cost of daycare,
Or maybe…
A black eye.

Tradition tells us
Women bear the brunt of grief,
But it is always for a man
She is supposed to cry.

Perhaps this time is different.
Maybe without precedent.
Her grief is unique…
She cries for herself.