Getting quicker every moment,
Power filled him like a torrent,
And with wind blow through his hair,
He rode his bike up through the air.
Up above the clouds he flew
And deep inside he somehow knew
That he could not return to ground,
Else bullies would beat him, punch and pound.

Higher up he rode and sought
Safer places where he thought
People would respect him, care,
Many miles up in the air.
Birds came up and asked his name,
And he replied: “I have no brain,
And have no friends, just enemies,
Who taunt me daily, laugh and tease.”

One bird said then, with voice hoarse,
“You are then a boy of course,
Who knows nothing of the skies
Where evil spreads like devil’s eyes
And beats on down on every wing,
And forces silent birds to sing.
You think that you know true pain,
But birds like us in agony rein.

“Go to ground, go back your town,
Drop your bike and flutter down.”
So he did, and bullies flocked,
And to his jaw they brutally socked,
Tearing him like joints of meat,
Twisting his arms and bashing his feet.
For seven lifeless hours he bled,
With body drained and nearly dead,

Left there lying in the park,
Confusion pounding in the dark
That filled his mind, his dying mind,
And no one came to there him find.
Six days later, lay he there
And all the town said: “We don’t care.
He’s his own, he’s not our lot,
And so we’ll let his body rot.”

Three years later that same town
Was hit by flood, I watched it drown.
All the thugs who had not cared
Were screaming now, yet none was spared.
“We regret our brutal past”,
So they said, “We see at last”,
But for regret it was too late
As water spreads at such a rate.


© 2000 Matt Everett