Rebel's Blood

They tried to force me to stay in line
Do what I was told
Stay true to the common road
As they preached how it’s the only way I’ll reach my
Gleaming destination
And yet
With every step I took on their path
Created from their own temptations
To keep me down
A little bit more of that shine went away
Till I was left with a dull and gray
Mission
Feeling more like a weight on my heart
Rather than the winged joy
For which my eager soul had originally embarked
And then came the chains
Bound to my arms and feet
Before I had made it halfway
I was frustrated and weak
And still they kept telling me
‘This is the only path you must see’
And so still I kept walking
Past the pain of the bleeding blisters
And chafing of my brain
All the while knowing that my dream
Was no longer the same
What had once been fresh and real
Was now stripped down to an illusion
That even if it found its way into my hands
Would never be more than some sick delusion
Always present but never existent
Never progressing but forever persistent
And it was at that moment of realizing this
That I stopped in my tracks and said
“Enough of this shit.”
The well-beaten road just isn’t for me
It stretches in either direction as far as the eye can see
Preventing those who walk it from ever being free
Of a gray mediocrity and molded mentality
Please
I know for a fact I was meant for something more
But if I continue to ignore opportunity knocking at every door
What exactly am I living for?
Nah
This is my life.
I’ll blaze my own trail and follow it to the very end
Looking forward to the challenges around every bend
Think what you will
And say what you’ll say
But rebel’s blood flows through my veins
And that’s the way it’s gonna stay.

Trial Before Triumph

As everything falls to ashes
Something must rise again
In one form or another there is no end
To this journey we call Life
Frayed at the edges as it might be
The fabric comes apart when we choose to only see
The events we can’t control
Whose fate our mortal hands were never meant to hold
True things aren’t always sunshine and smiles
But even in the darkest times
There’s a hand reaching out all the while
And even though the rug may have been pulled from beneath our feet
Something will save us from becoming a crumpled heap
Yeah, Life isn’t fair
We all know that’s true
But that should never dictate
What we can and cannot do
Where we will and will not go
Letting our doubts defeat us
Means we’ll never know
What we could’ve, should’ve, would’ve been
If we jump into the fight enough times…
Sooner or later we’re gonna to win.

Power Struggle

See I thought me and my moms were done for good
If she couldn’t understand me, I knew nobody could
Wanted her respect but it felt like
I was only meant to get
Lukewarm receptions to my opinions
Antenna must’ve still been flowin on analog
Cause somewhere my mindwaves were backlogged
Hazing up and serving her white noise
And she
Took it all as some kind of ploy
To give her
Gray hairs and nightmares
And her belief was that I
Simply didn’t care about
The sacrifices and years she gave up for me
But all I had wanted was for her to see
That my intention was not to throw what she’d given me away
But to make it my own and repay her one day
Sure, every time she said left I chose to go right
But that was only my desire to experience everything in sight
It wasn’t my intention to fuel the fire of our fight
I’m simply not one of those ‘walk-the-line’ types
Eventually things came to a heartpounding head
That left both our wills shattered
Our relationship left for dead
But for some reason, it was that collision
Of all our stresses and fears
That rebuilt the fragile bond that had grown weaker through the years
And though we both still have a long way to go
I know.
For the first time in a long time
My mother understands me.
For the first time in any time
I understand she.