Lee said he felt buried,
back when he lived at home.
He took the anger he carried
and started to roam.
And so LIFE began,
and he lived hard and fast
To finish the race...
before the starting gun's blast.

Day turns to night
and night turned to Lee,
with the eyes of a shark
in a dark dead sea.
When he was a child
it filled him with fright.
He must have known then...
he'd fall in love with its bite.

Misguided youth,
with directions not followed.
Staggered in neon
and in darkness got swallowed.
His cries went unheard,
beneath all the shouts
of the souls on the streets...
who'd been chewed and spit out.

A bobble head brother,
with a ghostly complexion,
gasped for air as he smothered
beneath self rejection.

We tried to throw off the blanket,
too heavy to heft
I tried to reach out and yank it...
but nothing was left.

Just the husk
of a soul
that got washed away
in its tears.

A human cicada...
at seventeen years.

***