Man Enough to Break

Daddy said, "Wipe your eyes, boy," when I fell and cut my knee"Men don't cry and men don't quit, and men don't bleed where folks can see"So I learned to swallow thunder, learned to smile through any stormLearned to hold the whole world up and never let 'em see me torn

Now I'm forty-one and tired in a way that sleep won't fixGot a heaviness inside me like my chest is full of bricksBeen thinkin' things a man shouldn't think when he's alone at nightAnd I smile at church on Sunday and I tell 'em I'm all right

'Cause who holds up the manWho's holdin' up everyone

I ain't man enough to breakThat's what I've been toldSo I carry it in silenceTill it's crushin' my soulBut maybe breakin' ain't weaknessMaybe that's what it takesLord, am I man enoughMan enough to break

Parked out at the crossroads, three a.m., the engine coldFound my little brother's number and I stared at it an hour or soEvery part of me that Daddy raised said, "Handle it alone"But somethin' bigger than my pride made me pick up the phone

I ain't man enough to breakThat's what I've been toldSo I carry it in silenceTill it's crushin' my soulBut maybe breakin' ain't weaknessMaybe that's what it takesLord, am I man enoughMan enough to break

He picked up on the first ring, said, "Brother, talk to me"And thirty years of holdin' it came pourin' out of meHe drove out there in his slippers, sat with me till the dawnThen we got down on our knees in the gravelAnd for the first time in my life, I let Somebody else be strong

Now I'm man enough to breakAin't what Daddy toldBut I found out cryin' on your kneesIs how the Lord makes you whole'Cause a man ain't made of ironHe's made of flesh and faithAnd it took a stronger manTo be man enough to break

If you're carryin' it aloneCall somebody tonight