They came…

From every direction, men came

to answer the call of one man

who could no longer hold back the tears?

A man wept for the son he never buried,

because he was down a mineshaft

hundreds of kilometres from home.

Another wept for all the times he was raped,

but remained silent because he believed

society was not ready to recognise his pain.

A father wept because he’d just lost his job…

because he might not be able to buy his boy

that tricycle, after all.

The outcast wiped away tears…

after he lost everything

because a vengeful woman falsely accused him of rape.

They came…

Men came from every direction to do what generations

of men had been conditioned, no,

poisoned not to do.

They wept.

Without saying a word,

they wept like never before.

They wept so that their tears might heal.