If Tears Fall from a Tainted Hero

Sanjay Bhatt 

If tears fall from the eyes of a tainted hero,  
The world’s whispers echo, cruel and low,  
“Look how he weeps for the sins he’s sewn,  
His heart now heavy, his soul overthrown.”

But what if the tears are not for regret,  
Not for the deeds the world won’t forget?  
What if they fall for a truth too vast,  
A burden of love or a shadowed past?

What if the hero, in moments unseen,  
Bears not just the weight of what has been,  
But feels for the lives he couldn’t save,  
For the dreams that withered, the hopes that crave?

The world, with its judgments, sharp and swift,  
Sees only the scars, the cracks, the rift.  
Yet in those tears, a story resides,  
Of battles fought in the heart’s divides.

If tears fall from the eyes of a tainted soul,  
They may be the fragments that make him whole.  
For in each drop, a truth is revealed—  
A hero’s heart, bruised but never sealed.

                                    **

This poem is dedicated to the legend AKSHAY MOHANTY