I am the enemy
When we don’t like who we are and we don’t know who to trust,
We form internal scars that lie in wait deep inside of us,
There they hide, but not for long because we’re just about to bust
Open at the seams, to kill another’s dreams
Opening up, it seems, is the scariest thing to me
So I’ll do it if I have to, but few and far between, and usually
It’s just to mock another me with their own insecurities
Because I’m too afraid to share vulnerably,
To stand up and scream, the dream that’s deep inside of me,
Uncomfortably covering, that I’m actually, really
Pretending. Sending the message that I’m confident but unfriendly,
Likeable, just don’t offend me
Or there will be no mending for you just ending.
Friend, do you get me?
And if we encounter each other on the street
This is the me you will see publicly
Because it’s too much risk to show you the boy underneath.
And this is the unending cycle that we continue to perpetuate:
Wounded people wounding people and teaching them that to hate
Is less risky than to love or to publicly appreciate
If you need someone to demonstrate just visit any school today
In any city, any state.
And this whole game has become ingrained,
When after once we’ve been mocked or had a joke told at our expense
We join the cruel flock and pass on the offense.
Who can resist the verbal onslaught?
To ignore and forgive instead of being taught
that we must join or die at the hands of the many—all victims-turned-aggressors.
It’s distressingly impressive—this machine we’ve created
Supposedly dividing the loved and the hated
But the truth is mainly left unstated:
The bullies and the bullied are BOTH filled with self-hatred.
Now obviously this needs to change but not just with the world
And this might sound strange but wait til it’s unfurled
This is not a problem in some other distant community
Whom we can accuse and say, “It’s their fault, you see!?”
The bullies AND the bullied are actually you and me.
It’s time we admit that we all have blood on our hands.
No more trying to dance our way around it.
If we want to leave the world better than we found it,
Let’s be honest, our conscience, is as dirty as the ground is!
And so you ask me, if I could change one thing what would it be?
I wouldn’t start with the world or another community,
(although, truth be told, they are just as guilty)
No, my change would begin with the bully inside of me.
I’d reveal what’s within, even my deepest insecurities.
And if I have to I’ll do this independently
But if you join in, between the both of us, maybe we can short-circuit this machine
So let us live this dream and let us see
Just how beautiful the world could be
If we ceased to be the enemy.