The Magnificat of Tears
Your tears wash away damaging matter.
They’re ocean compared to moist towelette,
a swim in the sea rather than paddling;
intensifiers of experience.
Focus is not distracted through their lens,
each drop’s centre is a swelling crystal.
Refraction bends edges of light to dim
everything but excruciation.
Your tears become a magnifying glass;
they sear through living tissue, burn away
the twitching insect limbs to clarify,
let you inspect beneath the carapace.
The subject explodes, dominates your thought
Her aspects augmented, larger than life
Her faults outside the image – diminish –
bequeath a magnificent eulogy.
The illuminate’s picture’s set in stone
preservation of memory concrete
saved for all time, exquisite in your mind.
Your tears subside. They can be wiped dry.
Sue Spiers started a creative writing course with the Open University which got out of hand and became a BA in Literature in 2012. She lives in chaos with a teenager and a third-time-lucky husband.