Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

Remember that boy who lived down block?

The one who broke windows with bottles and rocks?

The bully who beat up kids smaller than him?

You remember the one, his friends called him Slim.

The terror of Jay st., one neighbor recalled,

remembering when he jumped over his wall,

to dig up the flower so carefully placed, then

flung the tomatoes all over the place?

He wasn't well liked, had very few friends, and

the ones that he did like, were exactly like him.

But something disturbed me, something wasn't quite right.

His mother, I know, she stays out the whole night.

His sister, she's something, the way she dates boys

then throws them away like a child with old toys.

I heard rumors and stories, but thought them untrue,

the beatings he got, well, they were all misconstrued.

His father, a drinker, came home late last night.

His mother was home, and he started a fight.

Remember Slims face? It was always bruised up.

He told us his brother had beaten him up.

Or how about the cast that he had on his arm?

He told me he fell off the roof of a barn.

And when I asked him one day how he got his black eye,

he said 'from a fight', I was sure he had lied.

See, we never asked him why he was so cruel,

why he hid in the lockers, sometimes, after school.

Or when he was asked to undress by the nurse, he

would run from the room with a kick and curse.

The nurse, she suspected, but by then, was too late.

See, Slim died, last night, from a horrible fate.

His wounds so severe, seasoned cops were surprised.

For to them, a dead child, not the boy who told lies.

The father, from seeing the damage he'd done,

went into his closet and pulled out a gun.

One shot to the head was all that it took,

to end all the pain after taking one look.

We should practice more kindness to people we meet.

Leave a place in our hearts to the kids on the streets.

Kind words will not hurt you, they might even help.

You might just be helping in spite of yourself. By paying it forward

By paying it forward and helping your neighbor,

you could just be helping to save someone later.

And all of this goodness that some of you do,

will turn back around to come right back on you...