Love Poem: The Real Tears
Steven Ilott Avatar
Written by: Steven Ilott

The Real Tears

Those melancholic eyes and downturned lip,
Resembling not so much a whining dog
As sorrow crafted with a stagehand’s whip
Or acted by some theatre’s thespian cog,
Did glisten once with tears of salt and truth,
Conveying more the fear of a gazelle
Than mocking looks of crocodiles uncouth;
And thus protective instincts came to swell.
With words of consolation and replies
Of wordless love addressed upon the ear,
I tried to tease out sweet chirrups and sighs,
And out the pores the flaming fever steer. 
Ebullience half-drowned by th’urge to weep
Recalled the duty love had made us keep.