A TINY DROP OF TEAR

I saw faces Laughing and smiling Joking around and being real Nothing seemed made up. The widest spread lips Carrying the brightest of all smiles And shiniest of all faces Making their fellows laugh And wheezing along. But eyes said it all They always betray. With every smile emerging Appears a tiny droplet In the corner of an eye That waits to fall off But hands wipe them away Or brain pulls it back Pretending it never existed. And it falls on the heart Adding to the river of grief That flows through the cracks Of the torn apart flesh And the face continues being real Like no one saw what happened. But I did. I saw every little detail Of that droplet Composed of memories and sighs and regrets. The ifs and buts, The question and exclamation marks That continues Till one droplet of that kind Fell off my eye, too, Rolling down the cheek Burnt the skin And stole my smile, Giving me reason Why the laughing faces Never let their droplets fall off Snatching the smile away. © Fatima Zafar