Tears

Tears tell the truth of love deep in the heart,
they cannot be held back when love is real,
they show how true is grief when loved ones part
and joy that only loved ones joined can feel.
In sorrow all our tears are bittersweet,
they flow because we're sad we have to leave,
yet tears of love let us our sadness cheat,
and prove: to love is deeper than to grieve.
Because they tell the truth, the tears are good,
our love inside they force us to confess;
the tears show us the beauty understood
and so reveal what words cannot express.
The good, the true, the beautiful unroll
in tears that wash the windows of the soul.

                                         -- by Pete Voelz

(Inspired by my son first visiting his foster family
in Thailand after 18 years that he left at age 5.)