(3.2) The Tear (My First Poem - 1966!) Poem by Karl Stuart Kline

There she stood,
oblivious to the world,
Unconscious
of the stones being hurled.
Locked in the stocks
as a common thief,
One small tear, alone,
betrayed her grief
By that tear
the peasant crowd was troubled
And sought to remove it
by stones and oaths redoubled
She had taken
a pittance worth of bread,
A worried mother
seeing that her baby was fed
And now she was
a prisoner in the stocks
A helpless target
held down by chains and locks.
She had lost all
that she had once held dear.
For that, not herself,
She shed that last lonely tear...