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.