Don’t Cry

Jenni was a little girl
Playing in the yard
When she slipped in the rain soaked grass
And fell, breaking her arm

The little three-year-old got up
With tears coming to her eyes
When her Mommy scooped her up
And quietly said Don’t Cry

When she was four, watching TV
Daddy came home drunk one night
Daddy began to bicker with Mommy
And they began to fight

But Daddy got his gun
And shot Mommy in the head
Daddy cried for Mommy
But Jenni was confused; she thought Mommy was dead

Suddenly Daddy took the gun
And pushed it to the back of the throat
The last thing he heard as he pulled the trigger
Was No! Daddy No!

The police were horrified to find
When they opened the door
Jenni with her safety blanket
Scrubbing at the floor

Mommy and Daddy are messy
Jenni quietly said
Apparently oblivious to the fact
Her Mom and Dad were dead

But nothing was further from the truth
Jenni was torn up inside
But she remembered what Mommy said
She’s a big girl; big girls don’t cry

She went to stay with her Uncle Joey
Who accepted her with haste
But two years after she moved in
Something bad took place

She noticed problems from the start
And knew it wasn’t good
As Uncle Joey seemed to love her
More than uncles should

Then her fears were confirmed
When Joey took her to his room
And forced her to touch him
Where little girls aren’t supposed to

Jenni knew it was wrong
She tried to pull away
But this made Uncle Joey mad;
He hit her in the face

Uncle Joey beat Jenni
Till she thought she would die
But Jenni remembered what Mommy said
So Jenni wouldn’t cry

Then Jenni saw her way out
Because she knew this fact
She could stop Uncle Joey
Once she grabbed his bat

Jenni grabbed Joey’s bat
And bashed him in the head
Until Uncle Joey stopped moving
And she thought that he was dead

Jenni was pretty torn up
But had enough consciousness then
To call the local police
Who soon came running in

They found Uncle Joey
Battered on the floor
And Jenni towards the other side of the room
Leaning on a door

The remains of her tattered clothes
Had been thrown aside
She was wrapped only in a sheet
Ashamed and wanting to hide

Jenni went to live with her grandma
Who of all loved her the most
But when Jenni was sixteen
Grandma had a stroke

When her grandma was put in the grave
This thought crossed her mind
She was nearly a woman now
She had to be strong, she couldn’t cry

But the pain of grandma’s death
Had pushed her past that point
Everything wanted to cry out
From her organs to her joints

Jenni was confused
She didn’t know what to do
So she asked the only one she had left, her boyfriend,
Can I talk to you?

She told him everything about her life
Right up to here and now
That she had to have a release
Some way, some how

He told her it’s not good
To keep it up inside
And at those very words
She opened up and cried

All the pain
All the tears
All the shame
Of all the years

It all came out at once
No longer caught inside
Jenni finally felt whole inside when she realized this
It’s okay to cry