You say "You ain't come up out them trenches,
Ain't no trenches left you scarred",
But do you really know what them trenches are?

Did you hear the dogs fighting every night over in Ridge?
Or did you see those bodies hanging under the lower bridge?
Did you see your middle school friend swinging from a tree?
Or did you get excused from school Thursd'y 'cause the feds raided houses down your street?

Are you still screaming "Justice for Jones"?
Or has that become another skeleton added to your county's closet of bones?
Did you know about those missing women buried behind the house next door?
Or were there cracks in the walls and holes in the floors?

How many bruises did you count after your mother beat you for the fourth time this week?
Or were you too afraid to look at yourself in the mirror because her new man molested you on repeat?
Did it burn when he put his cigarette out on your skin?
Or did you eat boiled chicken and rice once a day for six months again?
Did your step-dad ever whisper those words into your ear?
"Why don't you let a grown man show you how it feels, my dear?"

Did you see that nine-year-old boy gunned down in a drive-by?
Or did you hear the sirens over his mama's cries?
Did you bathe out under the water hose when the temperature read thirty-two--
'Cause the pipes in the house were rusted completely through?

Did you ever act as if you intentionally lost so much weight--
'Cause you didn't want them to know there was never enough to fill your plate?
Did you ever have to open a protective services case?
Or did you have to take your sister because your mother chose addiction as her escape?

You see I came up out them trenches,
Ain't got to show you scars.
Your story might be different,
But I know how them trenches are.

© caspershay