No one taught me how to hunt, or fish, or shave
So that’s why I have a beard
No one taught me how to change a flat tire
So that’s why my car is so wobbly
No one taught me how to clean or use laundry machines
So that’s why I smell so stank
No one taught me manners
So that’s why you’ll find my elbows on the table
No one taught me how to cook
So that’s why I microwave dinners
No one taught me how to balance a checkbook
So that’s why my bank account stays in low cash mode
No one taught me to stand up for myself
So I guess that’s why I’m such a fucking slouch
No one taught me what to do with all the mad that I feel
So that’s why there’s a fist-sized hole in my living room wall
No one taught me how to play spades
So I only play solitaire
No one taught me how to play charades
But I've still been imitating and pretending
No one taught me how to chess
So that’s why I can only play checkers
No one taught me patience
So that’s why I just flipped the board over
No one taught me how to accept my vulnerability
So that’s why there’s an out-dated calendar covering the fist-sized hole in my living room wall
No one taught me how to win
So maybe that’s why I’m such a loser
No one taught me how to lose
So I think that’s why I drink
No one taught me how to drink
So that’s why I can’t stop
No one taught me how to admit I’d been traumatized let alone how to process it
I wasn’t taught to hold my grief so much as I was taught to barricade it
To cement it off; To dam it up
And to just keep building higher and higher no matter how much the floodwaters gathered
So please try to keep the perspective that whatever spills on to you is just the overflow