Hold You Down

by Tracy Brown

survive. It’s in you! All you gotta do is dig down deep and find your strength. Then you get up and you do what you gotta

“I was worried you were gonna play it safe for the rest of your life. Sweet Mercy. Always coloring inside the lines. Never breaking the rules or taking too many chances. This is brave. I like seeing this side of you.”

Don’t stay around here waiting for permission to live your own life, Mercy.”

“Because you have times when you can laugh and forget about your problems. I can never forget about mine. Even when I’m in the middle of laughing at something or I’m having a good time. I’m always sad on the inside. That shit never leaves me. And I can’t shake it, so it makes me mad. Then everything is downhill from there.”

“You can’t fight for somebody that won’t fight for themselves.

Just because you can’t see your crown doesn’t mean it’s not there.

“I want to give you mental strength to withstand everything

That’s where I get it from. But whenever you put a caretaker next to a selfish person, the same thing happens. The selfish one always takes advantage of the caretaker.”

A little girl falls down and the adults pick her up, comfort her. A little boy falls down and what happens? Everybody says, ‘Don’t cry’; ‘Be a big boy.’ Men never unlearn that shit. We suck it up and keep pushing. But that shit ain’t healthy. Crying doesn’t make you weak. It’s a natural response to all the things