How many times a day do you look at yourself in the mirror?*

One
In the morning when I wake, I walk to the mirror and flash a smile that's fake
One you may mistake as that of genuine glee but really it is sad if you look closely

Two
In the bathroom when I wash my face, I stand ahead of the mirror and see someone unamazed
Two lives to live and two more to waste,
Skip this one, move on with haste

Three
In the sunlight when I'm out for a break, I hold out a mirror that reflects the sunshine's wake
Three strikes of sun rays to my eyes and two to burn my skin
I'd say one thing, even the light that brightens your day could sin

Four
In the afternoon when the wind is silent, I ask the mirror where my former self went
Four seasons and three good moments have passed, she's still not here
Two pm, in the mirror stands the one I fear

Five
In the later time of the day when the sun is setting, I speak to the mirror to the girl who's weeping
Five fingers she has but on the fourth sorrow she lost track
Three hours more to be spent by two dead eyes that refuse even one smile back

Six
In the blanket that is home, I wonder if my reflection were a poem
Six lines to write with five unexplained phrases
Four rhymes out of sight and three pity beer bottle cases
Two nights alone, I am one with the mirror without others' faces

Once again I sit and weep as you pretend sleep.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

Black Flags are flowing
In the news;
inked in
or Not
The pulp slashes
Across my seared consciousness:

What say my heart for those
Who perish?
What Say My Heart
For Those Who Cry?

Peevishly My Heart responds,
in ****** Tears,
As in a nightmare:

Weep all the tears
For the Motherless Children,
Weep All the Tears
For The Buried Child...

Weep For Yourself, And Not Without Shame,
Weep For  Humanity And
Mankind
As it Slowly Dies...

Weep for Those
Whose Vibrant
Life You Adore.

Weep Not For The Cruelly Weak
Who, Knowingly,
inflicts
such
Inordinate pain.

J Eduardo Ramos©

Sometimes we return to long ago conversations
where more than cross words were uttered
where protagonists squared up to one another
and arguments and insults were uttered.

And when with the benefit of hindsight,
that most magical and wondrous thing
we realise often how wrong we were
and the knowledge of embarrassments sting.

If we could just take back those words
that were aimed to wound so deep
knowing how they’d hit their mark
and said to make someone weep.

In those teenage years, how cruel we were
how very little of life we knew
how gentle and forgiving our heart’s desire
how slow the understanding – in young men grew.

I’m now a man – three score and five
a man who love has touched so deep
but I colour now as I think back
at my cruelty then and I want to weep.

For almost fifty years I've loved just one
kindness flows through her every pore
I've strived to make up for those teenage years
and she just smiles and then loves me more.

My luck has held, we've stayed the course
I pinch myself to check I can still feel
and she looks and smiles at me and I know
it’s not a dream and it’s still real.

©Joe Wilson – Teenage boys can be cruel 2014

Standing here... For the last time
I am consumed with the necessity to feel.

However, despite my best efforts I can do not but sit and observe
This strange lack of feeling
The black emptiness that flows around the others trimmed in gold.
I realize it is the one fact that remains after all the chaos
... I will miss this place.
Maybe not right this second,
Perhaps not even tomorrow.
But someday... one day... I will weep.
For these were some of the most beautiful days of existence.
And I had the privilege of living them.

I look around my home and
know I've made a place my own
Let me explain,
I've lived alone since aged 16, it's probably
better this way,
and I haven't felt regret, not now, not
Yet, hopefully never. Yes, pieces of pain and
bits and bobs of bitterness litter my hall,
I can't hoover it all, but
Regret? There was no point, there
was never another option.

So I've rearranged furniture, and I've
sulked in my room, I've cried, I've
wanted to die and I've lined up my
windowsill ready to watch snow.
I've watched lovers come and go, been
opened up, watched muck littered and
have thrown it all against the filled up
wall, wished mum's hoarding away.
I've stayed, this place is mine now.

And in the wreckage of my banishment
I've made a shelter of some sort and I've
guided others in, a brightly cluttered and warm
bin for troubles. I've sat them down and made
them doubles, sometimes they just want to talk
and sometimes they just want to sin,
usually they want arms which will allow them in
sometimes to wallow, and I've given
them a pillow and wished them to sleep.
I've watched people weep here.

And so my home becomes their's too.

I cling to him,
Mascara stains his shirt
Like ink blotches on a left wrist.
Oh, how deeply, deeply
Sweetly –
Completely I feel this pain
Burrowed in the most hidden corner of my soul
Patched like cancer on the walls of my lungs
And Oh, how deeply, deeply
Sweetly –
Complete and utterly
Did we weep and wail through the darkness of that night
Tears cried by dull-ember fireside
This hurts more than we ever thought it could
Crocodile eyes ooze wet and hot
Figures entangle themselves in desperation
Words are few yet heart-wrenching
The strongest among us are bulldozed into flat implacability
Sorrow inhabits the cracks in my soul
Like chalk smeared across concrete.
Weep dear children,
Not ready to grow up
Weep dear friends,
For the depth of your love
Weep dear graduates
When morning comes you’ll have to leave
Weep for this country, that stained you and changed you
Weep for the institution, that burned you and bettered you
Weep for the people, who loved and supported you
Weep for your childhood, that carried you from birth to here
Weep, sweet alumni for all that you’re losing
For all the departure
For all the uncertainty
For all the promises that will be broken
And friendships that will not be kept up
Weep over the map
And curse the dividing waters
Weep my beloveds,
Deny yourselves no tears
Weep deeply
Weep deeply
Weep sweetly
Weep completely
Weep utterly and totally and whole-heartedly
Weep because this matters more than anything ever has
Weep because this has been the most beautiful and devine gift
Weep because you’ve been pierced to the core,
Debilitated by the most far-reaching love imaginable
And weep because
The world is expansive,
The oceans are deep and the lands are wide
The people are numerous and the cultures are diverse
The opportunities are endless
The combinations are infinite
Your life is long
And your future is full of immense possibility
But you will never have this again,
So weep.