What Kind Of Tears Do You Cry? Poem by Mark Heathcote

What kind of tears do we have to show here?
Are they truly-what-they-appear to represent?
Are they overflowing with what they're saying?

What kind of tears do we have to show here?
Are they cursing are they falling in waves
Are they childlike choking stabbing with staves?

Are they burning briny filming-up your heart?
What kind of tears, do you have to show here?
Tell me what pain or loneliness they impart.

Are they lubricating, nourishing, protecting tears
Or are they reflex tears protecting you from irritants
Or are they tears of emotion? What do they epitomise?

Are they tears of joy or sorrow or signs of distress?
What kind of tears do we have to show here?
Do they show you're vulnerable, can anybody guess.

Are you having a good cry a good cathartic-cry?
Or are your eyes just producing crocodile tears
What kind of tears, do you have to show here?

Are they tears from trauma or tears of anxiety?
Are they tears of empathy, shed in sympathy?
Answer honestly, what kind of tears do you cry?