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Always swimming against the current, traveling a path that wasn't clean
A Pandora's Box of past experiences...This Is The Life These Eyes Have Seen
I remember when in grade school/sad at home/and fewer friends
In the throes of a shattered childhood...into the abyss this youth descends
Reading, Writing, and some Arithmetic, it was the Three R's which kept me sane
Yet, in my psyche a storm was raging; nimbostratus and soaking rain
By junior high much more than wretched/abuse endured would set the tone
Dark MidTown blocks, a hustler's playground...those streets of pain I walked alone
Things were done - it's called survival, deeds mostly wrong, but sometimes right
Only God above could Love me, a desperate child who sought the Light
I knew boys who sold their "manhood", a tragic fate - they sold their soul
Forty Second, the 80's quicksand, and many kids were swallowed whole
Ingest these words of tribulation/I freebased when just sixteen
By 19 on crack and fiending....This Is The Life These Eyes Have Seen
Chasing the cloud, yes, on a mission, losing sleep to find the drugs
Looking for hits, but, finding nothing/a thousand specks on darkened rugs
Then came prison/another nightmare/just twenty six/a second bid
Introspection/ineffable loneliness to pay for all the things I did
Striving hard to avoid all conflict, encountering things that made men fear
I went so deep within my spirit; no one could ever hurt me there
Adult years of daily suffering/teenage times that weren't serene
Still, several Blessings amongst the hardships....This Is The Life These Eyes Have Seen
