CNY

Music running in my head; clearly not a well-written poem. Bob year head anyways. I have zero actual musical talent, so if we got any musicians in the house, you are welcome to use it.

[Lyrical note: Song starts slow pace]

Thirty-Five years of rain

Trying to hold the pain inside.

All of the roasting and ghosting

Just made me wanna hide.

I would run to that creek in

[Lyrical note: Pace gets quickens]

C-N-Y-God-Why do they hurt me so?

Why God why could I not say no?

Why God why did I get so low?

Why God why do I have these woes?

[lyrical note: Pace slows]

It's funny how things work,

how all of those people still lurk outside.

'Now they see me roaring and soaring

Wanna know if they can ride,

Here is what they say, all those folks from

[Lyrical note: Pace quickens]

C-N-Y-God-Why did I hurt him so?

Why God why do I just now know?

Why God why did I stoop so low?

Why God why did I let him go?

C-N-Y-God-Why do they hurt me so?

Why God why could I not say no?

Why God why did I get so low?

Why God why do I have these woes?

C-N-Y-God-Why did I hurt him so?

Why God why do I just now know?

Why God why did I stoop so low?

Why God why did I let him go?

Author's Note

[Author's note: I recently visited the Opry, so this has a country vibe in my head. For those who aren't aware, most people see New York as the city and Upstate. However, CNY is Central New York, and many of us don't consider ourselves Upstate. This is generally the area surrounding Syracuse, New York (Think the old Twilight Zone shows locations.) While there are a few big towns, most of these towns are incredibly small...smaller than any town you could think of. The road I grew up on contained a total of maybe 10 houses. We didn't have a school in my town; we had to go to school the next town over. We had to get on the bus at 6am to make it to school at 7am, get out of school at 4pm, and get home at 5pm. Despite the fact that my hometown was famous for preaching equality and tolerance, it was also my personal torture for 13 years as the bullying never stopped, and I wasn't even the worst case. The town was famous for women's rights equality, but I vividly remember me and a young black girl being laughed at every time we were paired for anything, like dancing in music class. The racism was never more evident than when, in Chorus, which in our case was 4 different grade levels, the whole class turned back to me and her to laugh as we sat next to each other. There was no other reason for their laughing other than the color of her skin. This is why I say racism isn't something people are subconsciously taught. We had "equality and tolerance" shoved down our brains for 13 years, and it didn't make a difference. It doesn't matter what you are taught. People have the choice to be racist. People consciously choose it day in and day out. The town that should have known better, didn't. While this song is more about bullying in general than racism, that experience is largely the inspiration behind it.]