Free

I’m tired. I need some rest.
Tired from running, trying to keep up with the rest.
Never do I feel appreciated.
I do all I can to upgrade, but always get depreciated.
I strive at all times to do right, but always do wrong.
Everyday, I hear the same stale song.
I get accused of not wanting to take responsibility.
I get accused of not being ‘what I should be’.
I'm not any good. So I guess I’m all bad.
Society always wants me to work blue collar,
Watering down my working worth of ever working white collar.
I can’t go out for being profiled.
The wrong route…why do I walk that mile?
Am I not steered that way?
I’m doubted before I can be proven.
Even when I think I’m making progress, I’m losing.
They wonder why I’m always stressed, always mad.
When you face constant scrutiny, how can you be glad?

I can’t even feel free
Because I gotta worry about my next worry.
What is the fun in it?
What can be done to break through it?
My girl says I don’t have the ability to be emotional.
If she only knew, I’m on the brink of a breakdown that’s emotional.
I feel; but if I show it, then I’m weak.
If I don’t show it, then I’m hard to be with.
Yes, I hurt and I cry.
It’s just a thing I have to reserve to do in private.
But yet, I’m told to be a man about it.
What the hell does that mean?
You want this, want that. You make it tough.
I give it, but it’s never enough.
I’ve tried and tried to fit this manly perception.
And all it has done is made me realize that it’s just a misconception.
I’m questioned.
I’m diluted.
I’m made out to be absolutely nothing.
No matter what, it doesn’t change.
I have to constantly face the storm and the rain.

So if you were in my shoes,
What direction would you choose?
Since you know so much and tell me what I can’t,
What is a real man?
That is the question I had to ask myself
Because I had to find myself.
I had gotten lost trying to fit what people thought I should be.
I’m not Superman! I’m just me!
All I can do is me.
All I can be is me.
Why can’t this be accepting?
I’m not running from responsibility.
I embrace it because I know my abilities.
But my responsibilities are not to fulfill what you think.
My job is to be my family’s link,
To be a strong figure in the community,
To be a father to my kids,
To provide a life for them better than this.
And you want me to lighten up?
How can I even look up
When you are constantly tearing me down?
Stop suffocating me.
When I can freely be me,
Then I can finally be free.