Shadows

Shadows

What's my name?

It does not matter out here among the shadows on streets.

Where am I from?

It doesn't matter out here among the forgotten your afraid to meet

Do you have a family?

Yes, I have many out here among the ones that sleep awake afraid to fall asleep

Why am I here?

There are many reasons see I am an addict

with mental illness that no one cares for

and can not treat. you see, I ran away when I

was ten or maybe eight because my father

could not keep his hands off me. I think my

age is twenty-five or maybe twenty-eight

to tell you truth I really don't remember it has

been so long since I even had a birthday cake.

I survive by how my daddy showed me how in

an empty room with a bed with all of his friends

in the cold with no lights or even heat

we move around at night to keep low and

out of sight while we trade for food and clothes

with our bodies and to those who pay us right

we are all lost with broken homes running from

a past that was always a fight and that's why

they call us the shadows that you see out here

late at night.

Richard M Knittle Jr. ©

©A #Poets Journey