above all else

Don't look away.

In the corner, there is a girl,

Who wishes she lived in a different world.
Who wishes her body wasn't hers,

And that the words she says are never heard.

And like a bird, she would take flight.

But from the cafeteria and through the hall,

The farthest she makes it, is the bathroom stall.
 

In the classroom, there is a boy

With nervous eyes and a quiet voice.
Who sits in the back, never on purpose, of course,

But still doesn’t think he has a choice.

He wears tattered clothes and reads with a stutter,

While the others laugh, their words are smooth as butter.
Is it because his skin’s a different color?

What they don’t know,

Is that his parents don’t even make half as much,

Working three years to earn what they spend in a month

There’s a mother who can’t afford Christmas toys,

The ones she wanted to buy for her three little boys.
The father who wishes he could do his little girl’s hair,

But all the other parents just whisper and stare.
The college graduate, who’s told “You know, you don’t have to work so hard”

She takes the overnight shift in the psychiatric ward
To see her sick grandfather, who’s fading away,

They hardly know if he’ll live to see his next birthday

Before we pass judgment, we ought to think,
How much could we be judged, lest we reach our own brink?