Man Up

I used to want to be just like a guy
To feel no emotions, and never cry
Until I met the boy with the saddest eyes I'd ever seen
Brown and empty, with an everpresent gleam
Even when he had a smile on his face
It always looks as if there was a tear trying to escape
But he wouldn't let it
Cause ever since a toddler he was told to be tough
To man up
Learned how to fight, but never learned how to love
He's just going through the motions
Emptying bottles of liquor so he can have a place to bottle his emotions
He won't let you hold him
Intimacy's not one of his abilities
Running through girls faster than he runs from responsibilities
Mean mug
Arms folded at the chest looking tough
But I know better
He's just trying to hold himself together
Just a generation of little boys
Given guns to call toys
Made to be brave, to "have heart".. but he's scared of the very heart that beats inside him
It's like we were all playing hide&seek but the boys never came out from hiding
See he never really grew up, he just got older
Lifting weights at the gym but can't seem to lift the weight that's on his shoulders
A history of violence and an appetite for self-destruction
He's just bits and pieces put together wrong cause he's too proud to read the instructions
Running towards a dead end
Pouring out liquor for his dead friends
Cause it would cause more
To let the tears pour
Little boy with a big ego
Yelling "I go so hard!" .. Yeah.. We know
Who you trying to impress?
Chin up and well dressed
But your insides are bare
And I know inside you're scared
You can't trick me, I've played your game before
And I'm so tired of seeing the same old score
Baby we haven't won anything
You're doing too much... and yet you haven't done anything
I swear I've met you a thousand times
Different face but same game and the same tired old lines
You claim you've got this heart made of steel
But you should be jealous of the hearts that you steal
This is what you call keeping it real?
I feel for you, your futures looking ominious
Baby, masculinity and misogyny.. were never meant to be synonymous
You think these tears are weak?
You should feel the way the burn my cheek
When a woman's eyes start to rain you can hear it thundering
I swear the bravest, most beautiful thing a man could ever do is cry in front of me
Show me the painful, show me the ugly, give me everything you've got to give
And I promise I won't tell you to man up baby.. because you just did