Ode To The Troubled Youth    -Cory Diebold

Alone the kids sit
On the bench at the park
They don't have to wait long
It's already getting dark

They know Joey walks this way home
The same way everyday
On his way home from school 
He wishes he could stay

They don't like Joey
This much is apparent
Because he recognizes their fakeness
And knows they're transparent

For this
They wanna teach Joey a lesson
Same thing, every day
A new beating, that'll just keep him guessing

When it will end
Joey wishes he knew
Outcast by his peers
For being honest and true

Until this one day
When they stopped Joey on the sidewalk
They pushed and they hit him
But still Joey wouldn't talk

Leaving him beaten
Crying and bleeding
Love from another
Is what he is needing

He picks up his schoolbag
And drops it over his shoulder
With a broken ego and wrist
The weights like that of a boulder

He begins to limp home
Decides to drop his bag
Outside the door
Enters with torn-up pants

He walks through the hallway
Dad's passed out, drunk in the kitchen
He walks by the living room
And his Mom starts her bitching

He continues to walk 
Down the short corridor
Her screaming is getting louder
But he's learned to ignore

He steps in his room
And slowly shuts the door
Locks it two times
And throws his shirt on the floor

There are bruises all over
His war-torn body
Lonely, still crying
He just wants comradery

He turns on his stereo
Dark Lotus starts blazing
Rappin' about death
And the the zombies they're raising

He sits for awhile
Realizes there's God
Wonders if he's there
And then decides that he's not

A loser he decides
Is what he must be
Happy and cheerful
Is what he allowed others to see

But feeling the way
The way he does now
Gets him thinking of suicide
And if there's a way out

He picks up a bottle
With "Aspirin" on the front
Dumps 17 pills
Into a dirty plastic cup

He fills it half-way up
With Sprite he'd been saving
It will all end
Because death is what he is craving

He takes the cup
And waits for the dissolve
Thinks about afterlives
And what they involve

After 15 minutes
Nothing has happened
His head hurts though
And he hears a thunderous clapping

He stumbles to the bathroom
And reaches for the drawer
Looks for his razors
Hopefully there is more

He finally finds one
It shimmers in the light
Looks at his left arm
Then looks at his right

He takes it to his right wrist
Slices it steadily and fast
The pain is temporary
He hopes it won't last

But today 
His blood flows more freely
Dripping off his fingertips
His skin is dyed red from the bleeding

And before he can say
The reasons inside of his head
His aspirin-thinned blood
Is what makes him swiftly dead

This is what happened
To a kid I used to know
Always getting jumped
Broke heart, broken family, broken home