"A Reasonable Thing To Ask" - Christopher Reid
Please explain tears.
They must have some purpose
that a Darwin or a Freud
would have understood.
Widowed, a man hears
music off the radio -
Handel - Cole Porter -
that sharply recalls her,
and they swamp up again.
A faculty that interferes
with seeing and speaking
and leaves him feeling weaker:
what does he gain by it?
What do we gain by it -
blind to the tiger's leap,
voiceless under the avalanche?
Somebody must know.