Dry tears

A secret,
One that she cannot reveal,
Covering every smile,
Painting every action,
Pain
She refuses to see.
Every moment she cries
Her dry tears
Unseen by my all seeing eye.
Her life, she says,
Is a sham;
A lie to the world,
An unsaid lie,
To a world
She refuses to acknowledge.
She chooses to live
In the shadow
Of times gone by
With hopes, none
Of the times to come.
She now stands before me
Asking me to wash away
Her dry tears
Running down her face.
The tears I see not,
Ones I sense not
For her pain
Is hers and not mine
Her joy is hers and not mine
For she is hers
And hers alone and not mine.
I smile
My all unknowing smile.
She understands,
Help her, I cannot
My hollow smile
On an equally hollow heart
Holds no love
To soothe her pain,
Holds no water
To quench her heat,
Has no fingers
To wipe away her dry tears.
She smiles in return
As she fills my empty heart
With her dry tears
And my empty smile
With her heavy heart.
Together,
We fill each other
Her pain to my joy,
My pain to hers.
At long last
Her tears laid to rest
In an empty shell
On an empty smile.