Now You Know Poem by Lenore Lee

Everybody knows your war is over
Everybody knows your good side lost
Now your future is fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
That's just how it goes
Everybody knows you have your reasons
And that winter dominates all your seasons

You think that this is the answer
You think that this is your salvation
You don't understand, you just don't get it
As you happily smoke another hit
Just because it is legal doesn't mean it is safe
With each puff you are causing your own death

Everybody watches, but they don't complain
Nobody tells you that what you are doing is insane
You are suicidal, you are depressed
You can't handle the problems, you can't handle stress
Your mother never keeps in touch
And your father never loved you much
That's why you shy away from other's help
Instead you turn to drugs
You prefer to hang out with the thugs
To you it is much easier than connecting with people

Everybody knows you are killing yourself
Everybody knows you are destroying yourself
Nobody tries to reach you, nobody tries to help
I guess that's just how it goes

You're only thirteen
There is so much you haven't seen
So many places you haven't been
But you hate your young life
You wish for it to end
You're a misunderstood, misguided young woman
With absolutely no life plan

As life goes on you grow up and get a job
Soon you are with husband and child
Life is new, mysterious and wild
You're happier than you ever have been
You are now a woman of thirty - five
But still addicted to the smoke, you are
You still puff your cigar

Now you know you are dying a slow suicide
But with the drugs you are allied
You don't care that you will one day lose everything you have
But you still know, that's just the way it goes

When you are forty and your child is ten
Your depression strikes once again
For the doctor has diagnosed you with cancer
Regards to your twenty - seven years of smoking

Now regret fills you as you lie on your deathbed
For there is so many things you haven't done or said
You will never see your child grow
Your grandchildren you will never know
Your husband will mourn your death
Up until his very last breath

Now you know you should have stopped
You should have quit the cigarettes
Than you wouldn't have so many regrets
Now you know, but it's too late
I guess that's just the way it goes

You say you're sorry with tear - filled eyes
But your family looks at you with despise
"How could you do this to me? " they ask
You reply that you were wearing a mask,
A mask of your true self, hidden beneath the smoke
A mask to hide your pain and suffering
Your son now replies that all you claim are lies

He says with hate-filled eyes
"You had a good life, good enough to get over your hurt
But you threw it all in the dirt."
"Mother, don't you see? "
"The only ones suffering are Daddy and me"