Don't Judge

Today I can be your ally, your loving friend.

And the day after that? All good things must come to an end.

Tomorrow, things will go as they are.

I will surrender, and you will be our next rising star.

Surrender to what you may ask?

The cover up that we use, the mask.

Because the real you is way too real for the public And where it begins?

The popular kids, in school.

We learn from a young age that paying big for big brands is what defines “cool”

We learn the same for going behind our elders to our friend to rep a Juul.

Next thing you know, your social status becomes a contest.

Who gets the most likes, who tries to be best dressed.

Those big brands for quite the big buck

Nike, Adidas, Converse, Reebok.

Those painful, obnoxious, seventy dollar shoes that let you win.

But you have to keep going until the whole school is your twin.

Those stupid sweats with the stripes that,

Make you all into the same stupid prototypes.

Yeah, that’s fun. Let’s all wear the exact same disguise,

And reject the people who think otherwise.

You poke fun at the boy in third period who cried.

Because he’s supposed to be manly, right?

Because it’s not like you care,

Every night, he goes home to a nowhere.

To a family that don’t bother to give him things like footwear, or healthcare.

Every day for him is a living nightmare.

All he wants is someone to care about his welfare.

And you dare compare him and his disrepair to the fair life that you have been given!

The girl you gossiped about because she was with a social worker,

It’s not like she already has an eating disorder.

She was taken from her mom who’s a hoarder.

It was the final court order and that worker flipped everything out of order for her.

That boy you caught smoking outside,

That’s his only escape when all he wants to do is hide.

He is tied to two different jobs just to provide for the family that his dad brushed aside.

He tries his best to keep his family supplied with basic needs to keep them fortified.

All things aside, his one downside was that one little box on the inside of his pocket.

And you dare to deny him a spot on the football team as you collide with him in the hall.

He’s trying his best not to find himself walking cold and alone alongside a countryside road to nowhere in particular. And you? You’re not helping him at all.

The woman you cut in line at the grocery store,

Little did you know she’s an exhausted mother of four.

She’s a sophomore in college barely making a living wage.

She’s barely middle aged and her children are in that developmental stage when they really need her.

But you don’t care, do you?

How are you supposed to know? All of these things are things that you cannot fix or undo.

But you forget to remember that words hurt and actions stay.

Even the smallest little thing, can force somebody's life to fade to gray.

The life you’ve been given is truly a gift.

A life where you don’t have to thrift or work a night shift.

You come home to food on your plate and a roof over your head.

So be grateful for the life you’ve been given before you get yourself in a fight in the street and wind up dead.