Every please
Every thank you
All the smiles
And soft eyes
Laid upon me
Gone with the thought
What would they think
If they really knew me
Or if I wasn’t me
If I was a women
If my skin was darker
If I didn’t speak the same language
Would they want me out
If I came here from another country
In search of a better life
If I loved a man
If i didn’t feel like a man
My worries must be substantiated
Half of this nation
Against its own beliefs
The fathers of this land
Who spent their lives
To protect the future
Were they nothing?
The hate they worked so hard to erase
Just for the fuel to be poured
On the dying out flames
All I want is peace and love
But what can I do
I am just a child
Yet the sunshine feels farther
And darker, each day
The gravity of the black hole
Getting so much stronger
Reeling me in
Maybe I'm overthinking it
I’m told I always am
Give me back my years of youth
I shouldn’t have to bear this weight
Take me back
When I was naive
To my first step
My first word
Just a thing to be cradled
Maybe I'm too smart for my own good
Too emotionally intelligent
Painfully empathetic
Or I'm just a narcissist
Who thinks he knows better
A face in the water
Every ripple
Ripping a new hole
Into my soul
Into my brain
And into my heart
One day, I will know what a cannon sounds like
How to hold a gun
Or how to drown out the screams
Helmet on, down in the trench
Bullets and bombs, brand new
Oh, land of the free
Have I failed you?
Or have you failed me?