when i was a little boy in the school desk of show and tell
who would ever think the careers in which wud rise and fail
in the shadows of the nightmares and pollution of slums
i studder and stagger, high and drunk, boostin the bums
sympathy is my paycheck, lunch buffets be's the gutters
and on vacation, i travel downtown to the next dumpster
red holes prodin my inner elbow, a sorta thinner fellow
status = 0, dirt gringed clothes, my teeth is yellow
i never sleep, my savior elevates me, my pain is mellowed
now i wonder from the valley of death would you hear my echo?

Next: a prison inmate