Cry

Taught by dad to never cry, I never asked, but wondered why

Sadness and pain I always kept inside of me, I never wept

Push the pain down deep inside, if you can’t you’d better hide

I knew that if the tears began, I would never be a man

The ocean, cancer, and a tree took teenage friends from me

An aunt, an uncle, far too soon, yet no emotion, I was immune

My dangerous job, lost many a friend. That pent up pain just wouldn’t end

Then came the day that couldn’t be, we lost three hundred forty-three

We said goodbyes day by day, my eyes bone dry as I would pray

The day I longed for finally came, an unknown stranger absolved my pain

Off to a funeral I stopped for tea but the man behind said “It’s on me”

He shook my hand and said thank you for all the things you brave men do

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, I barely stood with legs now weak

Into my car but I couldn’t go, rivers of tears did now flow

Inside that car I know I cried for all the people I knew that died

A simple act is all it took, a simple act, a sincere look

To break the chains of forty years of an inability to shed some tears

It took forty years to understand that I can cry and be a man