We’re taught growing up
There are good people
Then there are bad people.

Good people help others
While they try to save themselves.
They pick up trash and save the earth.
Good people are
Kind
Selfless
And they hold fragile souls in the palm of their hand to heal them.
Good people care about others,
More than they care about their self.

Then there’s the bad.
The ones who discriminate based on pigments of your skin
Or difference in sexuality.
The ones who holds guns to spouse’s heads
Pulling the trigger
Without a single drop of guilt.
Bad people sneak into houses and take children
Only to leave them on the side of the road.

But growing up,
Our parents don’t teach us about the people who put stars in our sky
As easily as they explode the sun.
Or that the dad who left us,
Is the same as the lover who leaves bruises on your arm.
We were never taught the difference
Between love and lust.
We don’t learn that the boy who grew flowers in our head
Will be the same boy to bring a tsunami that wipes every living feeling.
We go through childhood
Believing all people are good or bad
So we fail to understand why our best friend gets hit
And why our mom was crying last night after he left.
Our moms warn us about dangerous people,
Yet fail to teach us the difference between the boy who says
“I love you”
As he slides his hand up our shirt
And the boy who brings flowers to your doorstep with a card that says
“It’s okay”
After you tell him you aren’t ready.
Soon enough we realize
The boy with ocean blue eyes and soft brown hair
Is the devil in disguise.
We aren’t warned that some people start off
Gentle
And make us believe in forever,
Will soon turn as cold as ice,
And as hard as diamonds.

Were taught
There are good people in the world
Then there are bad,
But we never grasp on to the idea that some people
Are both.