A Tear

I look, I listen.

The words I’ve written

tell me more than I’d ever wished to know.

Days grow longer…

thoughts dwell, expand, explode – implode…on overload.

I see air swirling in circles around my hand,

tiny particles of violet light

caress my canvased skin.

A humming in my brain

echoes down

deep dark caverns of parts untouched.

In response, my temples pound pain

– shooting nerves never ending.

The veins in my eyes bulge and swell

then suddenly…

I shed a tiny tear.

A tear

salty and sweet

to the taste of my tongue,

A tear

more real than any thought

I’ve ever touched.

- Mark Allan Kaplan

*Published in J. Campbell (Ed.) (1983).Our western world's greatest poems. Sacramento, California: World of Poetry Press.