Finding Tears

I could see the sweat
on her top lip,
just before she dabbed it away
with the cuff of her shirt

going through
machinations of life,
all the while
a carnival ride
of rollercoastered pain
was shooting away
beneath the fringe

and the only other tell,
(I ever saw)
was the slight twinge
at every other crack

I watched her laugh,
smile,
all the while, the lights
were blaring,
at nothing
and everything

it was in the end,
when the craving for life
fleetingly left eyes

in the finality of a breath
her hands relaxed
over the ethereal,
she had found a peace
that radiated
in ripples of calm

she had opened
a seam in the fabric
that illuminated
a spec of earth,

that is now,
impressed with time...

it's with spirit
I endeavor,
pounding rocks
for that ever elusive
spark ...
and waiting for the fabric

to rip again