Richter Scale

Society screams “boys don’t cry”,
Society screams “boy make sure you mask yourself”,
Society screams, “boys break hearts”,
Society screams, “boy it’s always gonna be your fault”

In relationships….that is….

It’s my fault,
My heart resembles my fault,
And it’s shaking,
Seismic activity,
Earthquake….

My fault has been broken..I mean my heart was broken,
Yea she was a dime but those same digits showed up on the Richter scale,

Feelings of feeling in hell,
I could feel the darkness being consumed every time I inhaled,

People judging me,
People asking me,
If the relationship end was due to cheating from the man,

I mean….people assume that relationship ends are always due to cheating from the man,

As if girls can’t look over at the scantron next to her too,
As if a girl can’t be the pianist to my piano,
As if girls can’t carve the wounds that are scarred on my flesh,

Don’t get me wrong..guys cheat,
But..girls cheat..too,

Its a cycle that my generation takes part in,
Bad guy plays the good girl,
Good girl converts to bad girl,
Bad girl plays the good guy,
Repeat….

I rather….retreat,
I’m staying far away from the cycle,
As if I’m an injured cyclist,

I’m aware of my flaws and the reasons why I was never good enough,
I’m aware of my self-love issues,
I’m aware I’m a mess,
I’m aware society is scared of a black man being open with his emotions,

As I put these stanzas together,
I’m brought back to a time when my left and right cheek were soaking,
When my emotions didn’t turn into poetry,
They just dried up on my cheek,
Got wiped up and disposed of,

But wait..boys don’t cry,
Boys just..break hearts,
Boy it’s always gonna be your fault….

All these memories of people telling me to make sure I treat her good,

I wonder if anyone ever stopped her to tell her the same,

Good guys get taken for granted,
Bad guys reap the benefits,

Suddenly Skywalker to Vader makes sense,
But I’m not going to go dark,
No matter how tempting the role of the bad guy feels,
The role of letting your heart turn completely black,
The role of not caring,
The role of looking from scantron to scantron,

I prefer to keep my eyes on my own desk,
This test that life is handing out to me,
Will either lead to the light in me or the dark in me but as of now I’m stuck reading the study guide..and the topic is titled….healing.

– Kenny Rhymes