-- Whenever We Cry Alone --

by John Herlihy

Whenever we cry alone,

Does anyone ever care

Cracked my heart of stone

Does anyone my feeling spare

Melancholy music for sad nights,

Words whispered in sotto voce.

Notes on a piano filled with light,

Tears of sadness as a cry andante.

When the bell tolls the hour,

I sit up, take notice and listen.

Echoes resounding with power,

As stars in the darkness glisten.

When on the brink of despair,

Wrapped in a veil of melancholy.

Then a sad soul utters its prayer,

Into the stillness of night’s mystery.

Whenever we cry alone,

Does anyone ever take notice?

Stripped down to the bare bone,

As withered petals of the lotus.

Even with others, left alone to cry,

The voice whispers, the tears flow.

Others listen and stare, then sigh,

You draw in so they won’t know.

There at the bottom of the abyss,

The only place left but to arise.

Touch by hope as in a loving kiss,

And lifted aloft unto infinite skies.

All thru life we be forever harried,

Time arrives on time, we ever late.

Even if the heart finally be buried,

Yet the bereaved still feels its ache.

I only cry when I am alone,

From raw emotion people flee.

No *one notices a rolling stone,

Still silent, on my own, only me.

- - - - -

Copyright © John Herlihy

Sunday 21 July 2024