Love Yourself, Speak Yourself

These are the messages carried through their speeches

In large rooms full of their critics

Under the hawk eyes of netizens

Waiting, watching

Bated breath

To catch their every human action

Human?

No, idol--

That's what they are

But that's what they refuse to be called

They refuse

To be lumped together

As a godlike figure

And instead they ask

And demand

To be called human

Like us.

 

Their concert halls fill to the brim

Like a bathtub with a faucet that won't turn off

Screams echoing around them and smiles

 plastered to their faces

As they dance across the stage of their dreams

Full filling their prophecies for themselves

With their own blood, sweat, and tears

But behind those curtains

They struggle

They cry

They starve,

But they know.

 

They know that we are all watching

And waiting

Bated breath

To see them smile

And so they smile.

They know we are all struggling

Wandering dreamless in a world that demands dreams

Wandering with self-loathing in a world that runs on hate

Spreading the sour disease across continent

And from punch to word.

 

In this world they stand

Against the other public figures who preach

Of suppressing voices and suppressing people

Of discrimination and spreading hate

Against this world

They stand and preach love

For yourself and others

For your identity and name

They preach of speaking

Your mind and speaking

Out loud

Of the terrors buried by our governments.

 

When they started this journey

They had to sneak past locked doors

Into the wild night

They had to hide scrawled lyrics

Behind textbooks and desks

They had to brave smashed shoulders

And double jobs

And no sleep

To achieve a dream

(their dream)

 

Now they sing

Words that pave the way

For all our dreams.

 

They said the words

No one else would say 

About the troubles of youth

From Food to Dreams to Education 

From Seoul to Shanghai to Mumbai to New York 

Their message ignites a flame 

In the hearts of their army 

Kids who need an idol 

Who are missing from their life 

A genuinely good person 

(and a dream)