Because

Because I don’t want to feel hopelessness, I will never feel hope.
Because I don’t want to cry afterwards, I will never smile.

Because I never want to know far too well what pain is,
or feel the disappointment after the peek of ecstasy.
Because I will never have a friend, I will never know abandonment.
Because I will never know love, I will never be unloved.

These callused hands have never known touch, 
Nor has this calloused heart ever known the pain of regret.

Because each step I take alone, I will never know loneliness.
Because friends betray, and lovers lie.
Because to go up means only to fall down again,

Because I hold to myself only, I can never be alone.
Because those empty words pass by like dust in the river of time,
Because you can never know fear if you never know protection.

Because the passing of time leaves nothing.
Because life is not the beginning and death is not the end.

So I have nothing at all.