When we are young,
we cry easily
— when we fall
— when we cut ourselves
and
— when we don’t get
what we want

As we get older,
The Four Seasons taught us
Big Girls Don’t Cry
and definitely not Big Boys
It mattered not that
Johnny Ray had told us to
Let your hair your down
and go on and cry
We knew it wasn’t adult.

Sure
We might cry at the death
a relative or a friend
or a tragedy like 9/11
but that was very
occasional
We even have
“Tears of Joy”
that we rapidly
wipe away