BEYOND TEARS (Poem)

                                           
                                                         BEYOND TEARS

                                                by Thomas Hoskyns Leonard

                                                       

                           I did not cry
                           When they teased and bullied me on the sly.

                           I did not cry
                           When Jack me in the gut during rugby foully kicked.

                           I did not cry
                           As the PE master flounced and leered.

                           I did not cry
                           As Yoric bullied, abused, and shamed me to the core.

                           I did not cry
                           When I my ICL exams badly flunked.

                           I did not cry
                           For many years whence and hence.

                           Indeed, I like a madman laughed
                           While overdose nearly me to Heaven sent.

                           And I did not cry
                           When lithium froze my brain.

                           I did not cry
                           When she to living Hell  deserted me.

                           I did not cry
                           When cockroaches and bats my house infested.

                            I did not cry
                            As I tangentialised, blurted, and winged it to scorn.

                           I did not cry
                           When surgeon's knife despoiled my soul.

                           I did not cry
                           When she my savings ripped.

                           I did not cry                
                           When they death-threated me with rings of flowery mirth
                           On behalf of the politico-pedotwat from beyond the Firth.

                            I did not cry
                            When my career to splinters shred

                            I did not cry

                            When I took neither food nor drink

                            I did not cry
                            When dogs would come and eat me up

                            I did not cry
                            When my dear father to Heaven sadly went

                            I did not cry

                            While, for ten full years, foul Epilim straightjacketed me

                             I did not cry
                             When modafinil me into neuro-psychiatric streams of consciousness sent

                             I did not cry
                             When the Men from Havana death-threated me
                            'Cos they'd disappeared honest Artur from their loathsome scene;
                            The voyeuristic non-doctor, non-aristocrat-out-of-Castle-Tulloch, no less,
                            And his face was such a mess!

                            I did not cry
                            When the shrink treated me like a fly

                            I did not cry
                            When the amisulphide and tardive dyskinesia set in

                            I did not cry
                            When I into the deep sleep of the toxic black dog went.

                            I did not cry
                            When melanoma hit my wrist.

                            I did not cry
                            When venous insufficiency screwed my legs.

                            I did not cry
                            When diabetes invaded and poisoned me.

                            I did not cry
                            When dearest loving aunt and uncle forsook my cause.

                            I did not cry
                            When the arch-psycho of Londinium to his Purgatory went.

                            I did not cry
                            When Yoric played with his willy and my dear father's will.

                            I did not cry
                            When the darling Vanessa of my dreams turned the screws.

                            I did not cry
                            When with mere A.D.D. I was finally diagnosed.

                            But now my dear Thomas is hurt and feels his back
                            I shed my tears,
                            And I will forever protect him with my fears.