A child sits alone, his face stained with tears.

His stare faces nowhere,his eyes too old for his years.

The things he has seen, the things that he knows,

Make him a whole lot older than one would suppose.

His youthful smile, his baby blue eyes, the smoothness of his skin,

All belie the real age of the boy within.

The terror, the pain, the sorrow, and worst of all the fears,

Have made a man of this boy, of only 13 years.

And a small heart breaks...

The insults, the curses, the loud obnoxious words,

Ring loudly in the young boys ears, who wishes he hadn't heard.

The violent way his dad cussed mom, and how she cursed him back,

How it all turned to slaps and blows,

The sound of the attack.

Another tear makes a trace, down a tearsoaked cheek,

He has nobody, he has no friend, comfort from whom to seek.

He sits alone,and stares ahead,his mind a total wreck,

And wonders why, in the game of life, he was dealt from this deck.