Tears on my pillow

There are tears on my pillow
From a broken heart
Caused by not only a man
But also a woman and child

There are tears on my pillow
Because the world outside my walls scream
And the ghosts of life’s victims past
Come seeping into my black and white dreams

There are tears on my pillow
For bombs dropped
And wailing sirens

There are tears on my pillow
For all the hungry children in the world
For the homeless man on the train platform
I couldn’t spare the change for

There are tears on my pillow
Because my eyes burn with
The atrocities I’ve seen

There are tears on my pillow
Because mushroom cloud images and aftermaths
Tear at my soul

There are tears on my pillow
Because as I fell asleep last night
I could hear the sobs of mothers as they held dead
Sons, brothers, and husbands in their arms

There are tears on my pillow
Because during the day I have to maintain
But when I’m alone it all breaks me down

There are tears on my pillow
Because embedded somewhere in my soul
Is the struggle my ancestors went through for freedom

There are tears on my pillow
Because the revolution will not be televised
And that means so many won’t get the message

There are tears on my pillow
Because I know how that raped girl feels from personal experience
And this society will make her feel like she did something wrong

There are tears on my pillow
Because I’ve had ‘the struggle’ shoved in my face so much
Some days it’s hard to see more than just the past

There are tears on my pillow
Because of the cowardice of guns
And the arrogance of men in their seats of power

There are tears on my pillow
Because street hustling poison pushers
Are no different than the one’s in white lab coats with prescription pads

There are tears on my pillow
For all the voices that have been ignored
And in worst cases silence

There are tears on my pillow
Because so many just see Us, and Them
While I was raised to see me, you, and we

There are tears on my pillow
Because inside I’m just a scared little girl
Who also has to play the dual role of my own mother
Just to comfort me through the evils in this world

There are tears on my pillow
For all those who are too stressed and strained to cry
And for all the couch, stage, and internet revolutionaries,
Who do no more than talk

There are tears on my pillow
Because men sit on capital hills and vote for their own raises
While the streets around them scream

There are tears on my pillow
Because my government cares more about digital television
Than it does about education

There are tears on my pillow
Because somewhere right now, there is a village being torn apart by war
And some child was told he was a man because he can aim a gun and take a life

There are tears on my pillow
Because some teenage girl gave birth to a child
She never wanted, by a man she never knew

There are tears on my pillow
Because being anything else but capitalist is wrong
And being communist is worse

There are tears on my pillow
Because freedom isn’t free
And freedom of speech is a twisted illusion

There are tears on my pillow
I get so angry and enraged
I cry

There are tears on my pillow
Because we are all still being judged by the color of our skin
Than the content of our character

There are tears on my pillow
For all the days, and all the ways, and all the times
I’ve prayed for peace – that hasn’t be delivered

There are tears on my pillow
Because I’ve looked into the eyes of those less fortunate than me
And I’ve looked into the eye of those with more than me
And although we all may be created equal, at some point something shifts within the soul

There are tears on my pillow
For all those dying of disease
While we make products to make women more beautiful, and guys last longer

There are tears on my pillow
Because there is no money to be made in curing the problem
Only in playing with symptoms

There are tears on my pillow
Because fists in the air mean nothing
While serving meals, and cleaning streets, and planting trees, and teaching children, and housing the homeless, and giving hope to the hopeless – goes unseen

There are tears on my pillow
Because as much as I want to have children someday
I cry thinking about what kind of future they will have
And what kind of world will I bring them into

There are tears on my pillow
Because I have to cry myself to sleep