Child In This Shell

It’s dark this early in the morning breeze

A young child wanders where he shouldn’t be

Footsteps echo on the pavement street

The shuffling sounds of another’s feet

A familiar face so close to home

Beckons me in and then we’re alone

In the blink of an eye

In the grass laden frost

Threats found in whispers

Innocence lost

So much to hide in the mind of a child

Feelings of guilt are driving him wild

Father has stained the carpet in beer

Cigarette ash I smell everywhere

“Mother” I plead, but alas she can’t hear

The pill bottles empty, she hauntingly stares

“What a gifted young boy”

“A pity” they say

I learned how to hate on that very day

Taken away in such clinical style

Strained to remember my mother’s sweet smile

Dragged by my hair and slapped in the face

Seething inside with contemptuous rage

I prayed for mother or father to come

To bring me back home

To reclaim their son

I grew up in violence, sin and rejection

It taught me to fight and despise all affection

Like tainted illusions of trust, hope and love

Spoken by others and worn like a glove

In the mind of a man, in the dark hides a child

In a place that is cold, and really quite vile

The ground is like quicksand that’s holding him fast

Flashes like lightening reflecting his past

No one came to save him then, no ones coming still

Finding ways to keep on going

If even but by pill

The monster’s dark embrace is strong

There is no escape as such

And though the creature may be gone

I feel the monsters touch