Learned Late

He learned how to shoot

Before he learned how to fight

Learned how to move off emotion

Before learning wrong from right

Learned how to survive

In a world that don’t teach

How to control what you feeling

When your back in the streets

He learned how to aim

Never learned how to pause

Never learned how to walk away

When pride get involved

Everybody told him “be a man”

Never told him how

Till the moment came too fast

And it’s quiet now

⸻

He learned how to shoot

Before he learned how to fight

Now he headed up state

Facing life

He should’ve learned how to fight

⸻

Some lessons cost freedom

Some choices cost years

Some moments last seconds

But echo through tears

If he could rewind time

He’d choose different nights

Some fights ain’t with hands

Some wars are inside

⸻

He wasn’t born heartless

He adapted to pain

In a place where respect

Get confused with your name

Nobody taught him restraint

They just taught him to react

By the time he realized

There ain’t no taking it back

praying every night

Asking God “why me?”

Judge reading out numbers

Like time free

He ain’t evil, he human

But the system don’t care

It don’t ask where you come from

Just how you got there

⸻

If someone would’ve showed him

How to breathe through the rage

How to put the pride down

And just walk away

Maybe freedom still his

Maybe life feel right

He learned how to shoot…

Just not how to fight

⸻

Some lessons cost freedom

Some choices cost years

I write this for the ones

Who ain’t make it out here

If you hearing this now

And you still got time

Learn how to fight the demons

Before you cross that line