It was seventh grade, and the boys I knew
Danato, Brian, Eddie, George and Jude
They became my crew, but not before
They teased me at first for a bra that stored...so many tissues
"Achoo, achoo,"
they laughed and said,
They pointed and knew
I was filled with dread
That they were my new monsters
That they were my new hell
But instead something else
A crew began to gel
Pencil pushers in the ceiling
And spitballs at the board
When the teacher wasn't looking
Or he maybe just ignored
The nightmare he created
for himself, this mighty crew, of
me, Danato, Brian, Eddie, George and Jude
I had become someone else, I could see in their eyes
The darkness for so long began to subside
and the new took over, I was confident and lean
An 85-pound girl, who took on the mean
The girls, from the projects
I arm wrestled them down,
I stared into their eyes, look at me now
Look at me, look at me
I can tell that you see
I'm a leader before you
None more surprised than me
I was home at last
In from a cold
That I'd known since birth
And would have grown old
with those same beliefs if not for my crew
of Danato, Brian, Eddie, of George and of Jude
Every day the class voted on who should stay after
We were always the winners, a detention of laughter
and proof ever more, that I was more than my home
So angry, so haunted, the cult of the alone
But detention was proof
That I was strong and I was brave
Those boys and me and the way we behaved
Such innocence and mischief, so wrong and so right
I reflected in their eyes and I saw my light
in so many places that I long thought dead
Locked away, forgotten, the cult of the unsaid
But they brought me to life, my darling crew
My Danato, Brian, Eddie, my George and my Jude
But fires go out, and the next year came
Homerooms shattered and we all had changed
Puberty took over, they were pulled from the root
Victims of hormones that rendered them mute
And my broken heart resided once more and was done
in those dank dark halls, the cult of the nun
Where the girls from the projects now took drugs and had sex
Thirteen years old and living for the next
big high, big fight, big hurt, big fall
I wanted to go back, arm wrestle them all
I missed them, I missed them, and I missed my crew
of Danato, Brian, Eddie, of George and of Jude
But that's how life goes, these beacons of light
Drift in and out, here then take flight
Yet their ghosts remain, in my head and my heart
They saw me once
And I began to start
The music they brought that enveloped my soul
The cult of the alone now became the whole
As I sang and I performed and became the start of me
All because of them and what they could see
I can hear them still, in the wind and in the leaves
All because of what started with a fake little sneeze
Do you remember me boys?
That was love we knew
My dear Danato, Brian, Eddie, my George and my Jude
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