Son, how do I tell you everything? What my timeline of scars means to me How they smelted and forged my identity Sowed my fields of possibility Cocked and aimed my trajectory How they cut and bound my heart collectively Enmeshed within this reality we’ve conceived? Most of our time is spent navigating The brutality of the lives we lead Defending against the occupying tide That drowns those who choose to defy And rejects the pain that blooms inside With every crushing determinant stride We take deeper into a story that divides How do I teach you how to be When the pillars of our meaning Are succumbing to entropy While old minds bow and cling to yesterday Unable to abandon the insanity Of sword and throne, of dominating a world Believed gifted to us by a phallic deity? How do I unpack the seduction and lies In ways that don’t spark decimating fires And let side whole mountainsides in your mind Hell-bound condemn your ability to cope Curse your heart to turn to stone Kill the joy vibrating within your bones Consume utterly your will and hope? Because that’s the struggle of my lot Fighting thoughts that make it all for naught And my weight less than the burdens you’ve got An illness to bear as things fall apart Kept at bay by magic that must be bought Born into consequences not your fault— Not of intentions you conceived or wrought Damning, the tea leaves sprinkled on our sea The reading all fate and catastrophe While we vie and bargain with the truth Overcome with vomiting our fears How do I guide you, inspire you Protect you Without drowning us in my tears?