You don't give up
it's not in your dictionary

there is no acting dumb,
feigning ignorance,
playing dead,--

you wouldn't
know what the words meant
if you put give
and up
together anyway

it's difficult
to conceptualize,
even when everyone
around you is shouting
it from the top of their lungs;
screaming it into your heart,
begging you to do

what cannot be done

simply because

it has yet

been born