My Tears, My Love

My Tears, My Love

From the time I was a babe
Swaddled in mother’s arms,
My tears were a call to attention;
A love-needed-now alarm

And once the bell was sounded
(an angel had scraped her knee),
My mother never dithered,
To come and  rescue me.

Puffy eyes poured out their bounty
Upon her gentle shoulder,
Scrawny arms clung tight to her neck
As all they knew was to hold her.

Through my mother’s quick responses,
My tears and then her swift love,
Tears and love got meshed into one
By the All Knowing One high above.

And now that I am fully grown,
Sometimes I still fall down,
But life demands that I brush myself off
And mask with a smile my frown.

So I take my sorrow and place it
On some hidden, dusty shelf,
'Til my tears caress what aches me;
My tears, my love for myself.