All Our Children by Julie Ellis

I am the child…with no…direction

No place …to run…and no where to go

They branded me –Defiant

And sometimes call me …slow

I am the boy with the …smile-less laugh

And the girl…much too old …for her time

We’re the faces…you don’t want to remember

But can’t seem to get out of your mind

It’s me…the child of the universe

Through, I hang out and live in the streets

I’ve got guts, savvy and mother wit

With a rap that’s hard to beat

I’m the one…that love…forgot

Care abandoned, and hope took leave

Seems…I don’t have much of a future

Don’t you find that hard…to believe?

Have you forgotten me…already?

Why, you just passed by me yesterday

Shaking your head and mumbling to yourself

“It’s a shame…these kids act this way!”

I am the kid that’s lively and bright

Though I may not look…the part

Please don’t judge me…merely by appearance

Cause there’s lots of love in my heart

You say I don’t care about nothing…

Or nobody

And, with me…you get…quite annoyed

I’m really not…self destructive

It’s just that…I am being destroyed

Hey look, I am the hope of the future

Put your faith in me…at all cost

Let me be the one…to be found

Before there’s a chance—to be lost!

You know, I can be the guarantee of tomorrow

But, you’ve got to deal with me…today

In spite of the odds…I know…I’m capable of achieving 

If you…would just…lead the way.

(Original poem reprinted from Kids Scoop/Aug 1987)