How can you stand it?
It's after hours
You've abandoned your facade of happiness
And gone back to your melancholy ways
You're no longer in touch with trivial matters
You lay your head down to absorb
Nocturnal delights 
He creeps into your bedroom 
Dizzied and dazzled
Intoxicated and frazzled 
He peels back your covers
You're silent as he has his way with you
Using your body as a tool for his own pleasure
This has gone on for so long
You've learned to disconnect 
To distance yourself from the horrors of reality
Tell me, how can you stand it?

How can you stand it?
The lights flicker on and on
Your Mother says there's no money for food,  doctors visits, tampons
So you go without
Life goes on
You're fifteen
You've never left the reservation
Never ventured outside of the set boundaries
The hostile environment of autumn
Brings uninvited guests, and camouflaged chests 
Hunting season means white men with rifles
venture onto the reserve
And they're hunting for more than just animal flesh
Their mouths water in delight
Native women shiver in fright
Hunting season means in the morning one of your sisters wont be with you
It means another lost soul
It means another aspect of your life you cannot control
Tell me, how can you stand it?

How can you stand it?
Your existence is simplified
Your struggles nullified 
Most people can't make sense of you
Without a label or a concrete explanation, they don't know what to do
But identity is not based on perceptions
It's an individuals choice how they identify
To some you're just a man whose fooling himself
You were born a boy, but you are not one
In your heart, your soul, and every ounce of your being, you are a girl
A girl who loves cinema, literature, and politics
A girl with universes growing inside of her
A girl with so much to offer
A girl whose not seen as what she is because of chromosomes 
Somedays the hormones make you nauseous
And people continue to call you a he and by your birth name  
This unaccepting world is one filled with pain
Tell me, how can you stand it?