On coming from a broken home

And so my life has been guided
All the love I needed was provided
And through my mothers sacrifices I saw where her life went
To give more than birth to me, but life to me
And this ain't one of the clichés about women being strong
Cause hell if you're weak, you're gone
But life courage determined to do more than just survive
And too many homes have a missing woman or man
Without the feeling of missing love
Maybe they are homes that are hurt
But they are no real lives that hurt without reach
But not broken
Unless the homes of soldiers; stationed overseas
Or lost in battles or broken
Unless the homes of firemen, policemen, construction workers,
seamen, railroad men, truckers, pilots
Who lost their lives; but not what their lives stood for...
Because men die, men lose, they are lost and they leave
And so do women ...
I came from what they called "a broken home"
But they ever really called it "a house"
They would have known how wrong they were
We were working on our lives and our homes
Dealing with what we had, not what we didn't have
My life has been guided by women
But because of them; I am the man.
God bless you mama; and thank you.


- Gil Scott Heron-