I can tell you
that
every girl-
,and indeed,
boy-child
learned how to cry
quietly
– no telltale noise, no telltale movement.
And you
,too,
know
it is true.
To be sure,
doesn’t everyone
– regardless of age –
know
how to accomplish
the same?
Every woman
caught in
a blinding
moment
of
panic
and rage
at the
system that binds
her
into “female,”
Every man
punching out
against
the undertow tide
of
masculine
that tells
him
that to
cry
is to be
a “sissy?”
2020 taught me
the
beauty
(and privacy)
,indeed the intermittent necessity,
of secretly
and quietly
crying
behind a mask.
Walking in public.
Shopping in a store.
In a socially-distanced meeting.
During a mental health check-up session with a suicidal friend.
Watching a black man being lynched in public, for all the world to see, while the white man doing the lynching arrogantly showed off for the cameras…
a wilder grace 