A child named Disappointment

Most of us go through our daily lives not thinking about much beyond that which we are familiar with on a daily basis, yet every once in a while we are directed to something that we know is there but we keep hidden in the back of our minds. I am just as guilty of doing the same.

In 1990, I wrote a poem which is heart-breaking yet just as relevant today as it was then...about a child who was unwanted, abused and finally run away. I named him: "Disappointment" because a single word can relay so much hurt and anger, loss and loneliness.

A Child Named 'Disappointment'

He walks with head bent

Against a cold insistent wind,

His shoulders are pulled forward 

In an effort known as defeat.

He struggles with his emotions,

Humiliation and loneliness: unwanted friends,

Never sparing him more than a glimpse 

Of life as it could be...should be.

Disappointment is his only name,

Born with him, beaten into him

By a cruel, drunken father,

Never spared by his mother's tears.

In a world where compassion seems limited,

He walks alone. Too afraid to hope,

Too quick to assume nothing really matters,

Not even he matters...anymore.

So he walks the streets, never smiling or speaking,

Never looking anyone straight in the eyes,

A run-a-way child of fourteen-going-on forty,

Believing no one cares about a kid like him.

So for today, look around you and really "see" what's there. You might be surprised to see him (or her) wandering down a street...alone.