The Tears of Tamar

Louder than the world,

She weeps in silence.

Her grief cuts to the heart of things

The blood-soaked mess of life.

Oh weep, my sisters!

Every tear cries out

Like the bitter blood of Abel,

Crying out for justice

As it soaks into the ground.

Oh weep, my sisters!

These are the tears of everywoman:

Violated,

Abused,

Silenced,

Shamed.

Betrayed and made invisible.

She weeps for every woman bought and sold,

Reduced to thing-hood

In the marketplace of lust.

Oh weep, my sisters!

She weeps in the shadows,

Hiding,

From the horror she has known,

And the anguish she has borne.

And the earth cries with her in its groaning,

The wrenching misery of exile.

Oh weep, my sisters!

Nothing matters now,

No beauty, no position,

For he showed no contrition

And her sweetness was as weakness.

Oh weep, my sisters!

As the earth turns,

And the tears fall

And the moon marks months of silence.

As she counts her losses

On fingers too thin to hold on;

And her mind replays the terror

And the emptiness that followed

The rejection that she swallowed

And the silence that was damned.

Oh weep, my sisters!

Let us weep with her

Till the morning breaks

And the glory wakes,

Till all tears are dried

Oh weep, my sisters,

With all the sisters,

The forgotten sisters

Of Tamar’s pain.