SO WE GREW UP BELIEVING NOBODY WOULD EVER FALL IN LOVE WITH US...

So we grew up believing nobody would ever fall in love with us
That we would be lonely...forever
That we’d never meet someone
to make us feel like
the sun was something they built for us in their tool shed

So broken hearts strings bled the blues
as we tried to empty ourselves so we’d feel nothing
Don’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bone
That an ingrown life is something that surgeons can cut away
That there’s no way for it to metastasize.
It does!

She was eight years old

Our first day of grade three
when she got called ugly,
we both got moved to the back of class
so we would stop getting bombarded by spitballs
But the school halls were a battleground
and we found ourselves outnumbered
day after wretched day
We used to stay inside for recess
because outside was worse

Outside we’d have to rehearse running away
or learn to stay still like statues
Giving no clues that we were there

In grade 5
They taped a sign to the front of her desk that read
“Beware of dog”

To this day
despite a loving husband,
she doesn’t think she’s beautiful
Because a birthmark
that takes up a little less than half her face

Kids used to say she looks like a wrong answer
that someone tried to erase
but couldn’t quite get the job done

And they’ll never understand that she’s raing two kids whose definition of beauty begins the word Mom because they see her heart before they see her skin
Because she’s only ever always been amazing

He was a broken branch grafted onto a different family tree
Adopted….

Canadian Slam Poet Shane Koyczan's -To This Day (excerpt) Story first, then set to music 2 minutes in. Beautiful