Hurt People Highway

How did I get here? Oh, that’s right. It was the road travelled so often by so many before. The road from confident, strong, beautiful black man behind the walls through the gates of panic, self-doubt, fear, insecurity to full-blown identity crisis. I took that ride with you down that dark road. I should have asked the conductor to stop somewhere along the way and got off, but I kept holding on to the poles of stabilization that were your letters, cards and promises. I know he’s in there. You look the same, you talk the same, you even laugh the same -- whenever I get to hear it. But it’s all a mirage because you don’t know who the hell you are. But I love you still. My love, the currency of exchange, the price of admission to that crowded highway of hurt people that leads to hurt people. . .