Eau Claire (for Clare)

“turns out tears don’t cause themselves, whatever the scientists say” 

 

how do we talk about what we don’t see 
in others 
their beauty, grandeur, and grace,
what overwhelms and awes 
is unmistakably perceived, 
sensed, invisibly 
like God, horror, love 
wind on water, its currents 

i can see the river moving
but not its source or pull -  

what really matters
in any matter 
the H, the O, that does not equal 
wet, keeps happening 
from ripples to roars to rain,
even from out my own body - 
blood and piss and tears - 
revising the letters 

the responses
i’m learning 
are silent
like praises 
and weeping 

even if the matters resound