WHY WE CRY
By John Herlihy

Thoughts drift to mind from a distance far,
As a well gathers light from a distant star.
Who can identify the real reason why we cry?
The sad reaction will stay with us until we die.
From a deep well emerges sorrow of the mind,
An emotive human response unique of its kind.
From there it sinks into the depths of the heart,
Ownership of emotion from which we never part.
How does the infant know of its enduring sorrow,
Crying its heart out as if there were no tomorrow?

The first sound a baby utters in the world, a cry;
The last sound to accompany the last breath, a sigh.
To begin within the eyes locked on a lasting despair;
With a profound realization life simply is not fair.
Then moves on to the nose, puffed and puckered,
Like a trick has been played and we are suckered.
Then down to the mouth, lips turned down and sad,
Locked into a pout that will never again know glad.
As emotions die, the shoulders shimmer and shake;
The body continues to react in the sorrow’s wake.

As an old man, I cry at movies, at funerals, at night;
The emotions sneak up upon me from out of sight.
Our laughter just flicks and flutters like a cat’s tail;
When we cry, it comes across as a mournful wail.
As if there does lie within me a centuries-old stone,
Carved into years of millennia as a brittle old bone.
Of children lost, of sorrow endured, loved ones gone;
The melody of their living strikes a melancholy gong.
They gather together freely within me one last time,
Universal memories that are now personal, mine.