When Men Cry – A Poem by Daniel Klawitter
And shall we proceed to get rid
of the weepings and wailings of famous men?
-Plato, Republic III.
A man’s ragged agony
is terrible and hard to behold —
as heavy as gravity
the body shaking like Jell-O
between sobs and moans.
They make sacred
the places wherein they weep,
so rarely do men draw water
from such a deep and hidden wellspring.
Something almost sacramental
about those tears of rage and loss —
It feels like that,
when men give birth
to such costly sorrow
upon their knees.
Perhaps the only children
some will ever have are these:
Their tears walking the world
as monumental orphans —
chastened in their desires
like mendicant friars
begging their bread
from strangers.
More at http://about.me/dklawitter.
