'They won't tell you' by Jerry Joel

They wont tell you the truth

Even when you ask, they’ll keep mute

They wont tell you that the road was full of thorns

And that defeat and futility battled for their turns

They wont tell you they didn’t sleep with two eyes closed

And that the nights were ice cold

That the sun burnt them, down to their bones

And at night tattoos were drawn on their bodies by mosquitoes

That there were days they were dazed by uncertainty

And nights they got by on certain teas

That there were times, time seemed to crawl

Times when they had no dime, and poverty was seamed to their shawl

No they wont tell you

That they once battled your battles

That they once tasted your failures

That they once feared your fears

And would rather yell at you

When you do too

Instead of the truth, with fiction they’ll have you fed

And when you are full, put you to bed

To wake you when the sun rises, with more disguises

They gallivant with the poise of giraffes and ostriches

Parading themselves as untouchables in their niches

The stories they wont share

Are the stories we need to hear

Stories of their path, part of which was perilous

Stories of their battle scars, not scarce of fuss

Buried beneath big boulders of condescension

Structured to make them forever feared and looked upon.

Poem culled from poetry.wrr.ng

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