Heavy hands and heavy hearts

It is something like stepping into the fire
Like waiting for the burn to consume all of me
To take away the childishness left in the body of a man
To sear the flesh from my bones
So that the arms that pulled my body up branches into the tops of trees
And the legs that dove into piles of  leaves in autumn are no more
And having it all remain intact and knowing I have added to my burden
That I will have to acquire new strength so that I can walk with my head held high
It is something like the Fairgrove Baptist Church choir,
Off key and out of rhythm,
And Kelly’s in the choir strumming his out of tune guitar
He’s stomping his feet as he makes his way to Leroy,
And they’ll play pattycake in front of the altar like school kids,
But no one’s laughing because it is serious in its on way
It is something like the lesson’s you wanted to tell me,
That it is not always going to be easy,
That I have to learn to fight for myself
There will be girls who will break my heart,
People will hate me for no reason other than that I was born a color,
That there is so much discrimination in the world,
But you knew I had to learn them for myself
They don’t count for anything any other way
Because pain can be sweet because of the pleasure that comes after
And if I have to tell you what it is like for me to write I will tell you all of this,
Try to get close to what it is like,
Because you can’t know anymore than I can know.