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Poetry By Street Youth

Runaways and Street Youth

Too many people want right from wrong
I'd just rather walk alone
I'd just rather be alone
Too many people scared and confused
I'd just rather be refused
Rather than being abused Too many paths going left and right
I'd rather walk alone tonight
Than decide what's wrong from right
I'd rather be alone tonight
Crushed dreams and frightened alibis
Can't see straight through all these lies
If somebody would show me the way
Maybe I'd be happier today
But I'd rather be blown away

Rory Fraser

TO DEAN R.I.P.

Why can’t we quit on life
Why can’t we, we just stop
Sure we can, we could do it with a knife
But that solves nothing You could be a junkie
Rob a bank
Be somone’s flunkie
Have all the decisions made for you
by the drug that we crank

Why can’t life be easy
Why can’t you wipe everything away
Sure you can if you give up
Live the game everyone tries to play

You can be a bum
And live on the street
Pan for money
And whine to the people that you meet

Why can’t you stop this cycle
Why can’t I stop the pain
Sure you can, but for how long
I smoke some pot to let my thoughts drain

RICHARD VAN CAMP

TORTURED

Methodically
You can become free or a killer
When each step wakens fresh new pain
More wounds to defend
Glazed puddle stares up at my fear
I see my pain drifting
In its still eye
Almost annoyed by the lack of reaction
I stubbornly enrich my step
Memory provokes each weakness
Rising away from the bitten soul
For a moment in euphoric wonder
And forgetfulness
Crashing hard from battle with belief
Realizing one must level the pain
To tramp through worthlessness
All looks unfair
Unfair attacks from the bloodless triumphant
New rips and pain and hooks
Resentment forms a new meaning
And endless marathon
In circles anew
Of no forgiveness
Wearing off the thriving power
Of need not known and manic energy
I propose to learn once more
Enthusiastic discovery
Of one’s own will
And one’s own option
Hardest things to obtain
And hold onto
Most needed and cherished
What you can give
Is detailed silently
The heart’s compass
Is never fed enough
Always hurried through struggle
No shelter in these humble fields
Lightning strikes a new life
To pain I’ve sealed
So, chaotic strife brings no rejection
Turning the inside pain
To outside direction

JUNIPER

Invasion of thoughts
I can't explain the cause.
Alone in crinkled tears
That never quite hit the ground
They're too weak to travel such far distances,
weak like their Creator.
They disappear into a cloud of mixed feelings,
feelings polluted so deep the toxins reach their mollecular
structure.
In puddles of Darkness and Reflections of Pain,
As I watch myself bleed to such red pigmentation
Gullible like a sheep, the wolf tricks my sanity and sells
me to a violent trance of fictionary screams.
Where dreams are reality and reality doesn't exist,
for waking up from the narcosized sleep
so profound full of aching sedation is impossible
For when the drug starts to fade, they pump your virgin veins
with more savage doses of illicit pain
They drive you to a world of concrete, of famine, of war,
of prejudice, of racism, of sexism, with no justification
for the malignant actions they take.
But you grow with fear. Fear is the brainwash they teach you.
Scare to leave that world, for the unknown is frightening.
I know within all of this, your face appears quite clearly.
Fighting the smog and direct so I may sense visionary clarity
In this unreal reality, you keep me alive, nourish my cells
with oxygen.
My eyes are sore from trying to focus on your smile,
my ears are buzzing with great stigma, they try to retrieve your
voice, so soothing and your whispers of euphoria - which are a lot like HEROIN
I feel angels in the sky. I see very dim.
I feel like a cure for the diseased
lies that birth and evolve
inside their porous tongues.
But they drop the bomb and my battle cry fades!
EQUITY is an illusion.
You leave what's left of my tranquillity
and I find myself back here in hell!

CRAMPZ '94