Flawed
I silently walk these streets alone
Once filled with the kids I had known
They weren't perfect, but neither was I
Now they're gone and I never said goodbye.
It's from them I learned never to judge,
Because we're all suffering, facing demons that won't budge.
We called them losers, rejects, and criminals,
But we were the cancer, at times fatally terminal.
They forged their stories in this city's crevices
Became strong climbing out of her ditches.
When they fell, they'd help each other stand,
Now they're gone, I too late to understand.
I'm left with lonely thoughts to ponder
What my life would have been had I joined their wonder.
I was told I was a good kid who'd be a great man
Better man? Those were the kids who left for a distant land.
Criminals, losers, and rejects
They are better than anyone suspects
They forged themselves in this city
Blood, pain, and regret, their smithy.
Yes, they may be flawed
All real diamonds are by nature's law
And I'd rather be one of them, an outcast.
Than part of society's hateful caste.
So I walk these hallowed streets
Made holy by those children’s heart beats
They are gone and I am left
Ashamed I had been so blind, so deaf.