Scapegoat

From where does the thundercloud come with its black sacks of tears?~ Neruda’s ‘The Book of Questions’ (El libro de las preguntas).

Wild

broken-hearted tears

of lovers lost

or never found

in the first place.

Tears of anger, disappointment

frustration and loneliness —

desperate

tears offered up to Heaven

when all else failed —

tears that even the angels couldn’t dry,

stuffed inside a random cloud

and sent away

like a scapegoat.