{peeling} ONIONS MAKE ME CRY – poem by Selasie Bulmuo

I peel away my gaze transfixed

On two quite different things

On what I have within my hand

And the space within, your eyes can’t see

I cannot look away from here

I am a prisoner in this cell

I am tightly locked away inside

So I’d rather hide these thoughts for now 

And go about my mundane tasks.

I do not want to seem so weak

To cry when it seems without a cause

But I cannot trust myself to keep

The secrets of my heart locked in

If  tears are not allowed to flow

I need to cry it’s all too much

Your pity tokens I do not want

So since I have no friend or cause

I choose my onions they will do

No one to blame but myself

I chose this road I thread today

I trusted you and chose to give

Though more deserving ones did come near

So don’t ask me about my tears

An answer true I cannot give

Tis these onions that I peel

They are the ones, they make me cry

I cry not for the youth I lost

I cry not for my innocence gone

I cry not for the pain within

It is these onions, that’s all I’ll say

They are the ones, they make me cry

Each peel demands more tears to run

Down my face, a cascading scene

Each memory locked up in each peel

The tears roll down as I recall.

I cry not for the words you said

although they pierced my very soul

I cry not for the loss I felt

When you broke my very will

I cry not for the sun, moon and stars

My future’s promise left unfulfilled

And in the mundane routine now my life

My heart still dwells on time gone past

These tears their mine alone to know

They hold the secrets of my heart

The truth is that I still hold hope

So firmly like these within my hand

I dare not speak lest it flees

So I hold on tight and peel away

Each slice I cut, a new piece falls

The tears roll down my cheeks as well

You look at me, I smile at you

As if to say, tis these onions they make me cry.

Please don’t ask me to bear my soul

When solace true you cannot give

Please don’t ask me why I cry

I cannot speak, I’ll come undone

So beleive me, It’s as I said

These onions they make me cry