Once He Was A Child

His heart is beating, bleeding.
His soul is rocked.
Jarred open, silently scarred.
Sudden realization,
Things are no longer so easy,

As once he was a child.

Young man of nineteen,
Thus has dawned a new day.
What he dreamed to be fruitful,
Has drained him away.
He didn't know it could happen,

As once he was a child.

Lessons learned, not from teaching,
But from labor and from fear.
Gnarly black eyes seeking,
Awaiting the guard down
And he never sees it coming,

As once he was a child.

Inward grows all the vileness,
Experienced not before.
Deceased smiles of innocence,
Moron now to abhor.
Immense decision with consequences,

But…no longer a child.