Change Me

You have seen me dealing with the violent
Seen my passion for all that I love
You love the protector and provider I am
The picture in your mind just not enough

You want to control what you don’t know
Without understanding things I have done
Your protected life didn’t create what mine did
Something very different life made me become

My conscious thoughts born on my journey 
Only experience taught me how to control
Though I’m capable of more a different matter 
That mindset you can never know

You wish I didn’t always have to take a stand
You’ve told me my way is exhausting
Driven to actions by ingrained duty
Addressing what is wrong part of my being 

No desire to make you see the bad in the world
To do this would change the beauty inside
I have done things meant to make it better
No reason to explain nor to hide

Nothing else possible to my way of thinking 
I’ll seek a better world win, lose or draw
My experience has shown me a darker world 
Life-learned lessons predict it all

I don’t know how you love everything 
Won’t question a world that ideal
No desire for you to see through my eyes at all
Just understand what drives me is real

I’m here taking care of everything important
Refusing to apologize for what I must be
All my life some people have pushed me away
Feeling somehow they must change me

JBentley-04Oct2023