She Really Knows What It’s Like
By Captain Midnight
Adapted from the song “What It’s Like,” composer unknown, performed by Everlast
The story of one woman‘s survival. Rated EC for extremely violent, disturbing images.
(Verse 1)
(Name deleted) was a nice young lady
Ran a good business
In her town.
People stopped by and
Visited whenever
They felt down.
She was lovely, lively,
Full of what we used
To call “Spunk.”
But one terrible day
She was attacked
By a gang and its leading punk.
The horrors they did to her
Would leave bloodstains
On the walls.
More than one of her friends
Would have hunted those men
And cut off their collective
Balls.
But it took second place
To their worry
As she lay in a hospital bed,
With machines and meds
Keeping her from dropping
Into the abyss of the dead.
(Chorus 1)
They really knew
What it was like
To hear the news …
Then they really knew
What it was like
To sing the blues.
(Verse 2)
Slowly she improved,
Taken from
The critical ranks.
And her friends
Who followed the news
Breathed sighs of thanks.
But they all knew
She’d been pierced …
Her body by men and knives
And her soul
With something more fierce.
(Chorus 2)
For no person outside
Can truly feel the pain …
Suffering alongside her
Would not help her gain.
How can people know what it’s like?
How can people know what it’s like?
(Verse 3)
She withdrew, for good reason,
From the eyes
Of most of the world,
The police knew of the gang
But the flag of
Justice lay furled,
Until one day
A man came to her with
His hat figuratively in his hand,
In halting tones he described
How he had
Been part of that band
Who had hurt her;
He told of his part
In this heinous crime,
And for her sake,
For justice and truth,
He would serve
His prison time.
He was good as his word;
The leader of the gang
Was safely
Locked away;
And all that he wished
From her
For the price
He would pay;
Was that she would
Hate him no more,
And that he could feel
Her forgiveness
As he walked out the door.
Then he really knew
What it was like
To feel the pain.
Then he really knew
What it was like
To hurt
For petty gain.
(Chorus 3)
And she now lives her life
Much more circumspect
Than she did before,
Not friending people
Who would call her
A stripper
Or a whore.
But she works
And she smiles and she talks
To the friends
She feels are true,
(Chorus 3)
And now she thinks again
About the sky
Turning happiness blue.
She really knows
What it’s like …
She really knows what it’s like.