Shuffled like bureaucratic paperwork
From desk to desk
Status "UKNOWN"

Second hand clothes
Second hand love
Second hand child

Words like knives
Razor sharp
Cut to the bone

Dreams of mother
And father
Lost

Cry to sleep
Every night
Years on end

Washing own clothes
Age of 6
Ran away

Signs of affection
Bruises and welts
Didn't want the scars to go away

No voice raised
To defend
Only child

Every year
New school
New kid, no friends

Every year
Sent away
Status "UKNOWN"

Pain endured
Pain hidden
Pain denied

Broken trusts
Broken heart
Broken child

No T-ball
No boy scouts
No father

Lost chances
Lost dreams
Lost hope

Labeled
"The bad child"
Angry child


No one to tell
No one to trust
No one to love

Now a young man
Who could not feel
Loved

Women knocked
On locked door
That I would not open

Who could love
Such a worthless person
So ugly, stupid and weak

Pain of loneliness
Was a darkness
That brought hatred of the light

Cigarettes, ***** and drugs
Helped to hide the pain
But not the suffering

Emotions turned off
Like the flick of a switch
Feeling nothing anymore

Ran hard and fast
On the razor's edge
Of life

Angry at the world
Justice is just a word
To lie about the truth

Fought the demons
Like boxing fog
Never landing a blow

Took many years
To break the chains
To find the light

Sometimes the pain
Burns deep
Tempered steel

Gave up the blame
And the hate
Too heavy to carry

I see the destination now
Though the path is hidden
Status, no longer unknown