I’ve always had a strange fascination with scenes that convey sadness, pain or fear. I’m prone to wondering if the emotion I observe is one I’ve felt or could even comprehend. Sometimes when I get caught up in such a scene, I fear it’s intrusive to look, no matter how public the setting.

This one grew from a memory of a girl I once saw sitting by herself, visibly sobbing, in a mall food court some years ago, but the memory was drawn out by a stunning photo I stumbled across on Flickr (which helped spare the sense of intruding, I suppose).

beneath hanging hair
is a smudged path worn by tears,
but what put them there?