Out in the Open - Butch Walker

I remember in my younger years

Walking to the city pool

Got yelled at, called a faggot

From this kid I knew in school

His dad, and dad before him

Lived outside of town

With a lack of education

The options weren’t around

Sometimes I’d see that boy in class

With bruises on his eyes

Red and pretty swollen

Tears tangled up in pride

Repeating memorized rhetoric

About it being God’s way

And if I didn’t follow the good book

There’d be some hell to pay

But I don’t blame you for how you turned out

A habit’s hard to break

You’re were born into what you became

And I was born this way

I can try to show compassion

Before you take that shot

Out here in the open

…Whether I like it or not

Driving back from a party

With friends on Saturday night

I slowed down to a wreckage

In the coldest part of night

That boy who called me faggot

Lie bleeding, almost dead

He wrecked that truck from drinking

And the windshield met his head

I pulled him from the driver seat

Said help is on its way

Put my hand up upon his chest

Said it’ll be okay

When he focused on my likeness

I could see it in his eyes

Everything he’d been taught to hate

Would finally save his life

And the irony about this

I told him with a smile

Your God must work in stranger ways

Than your heart will allow

He caught his breath between the tears

His eyes bloodshot and dim

His rebel-flag, tattooed hand, holding mine to him

He said…

Please don’t blame me for how I turned out, I learned a little late

I was born into what I became

And you were born this way

I can try to show compassion

That might be all I’ve got

Out here in the open

…Whether I like it or not