Douglas Allen Rhodes

What I know of life I learned on deserted streets at two in the morning,
running with thieves and liars,
running from our homes, our lives, ourselves,
finding comfort in each other, and all the evils of the night.

What I know of life I learned in a jungle valley,
teaching the children of another world,
teaching myself that the world wasn’t what I thought,
finding a different person beneath the layers of myself.

What I know of life I learned in the arms of desperate girls,
seeking the love their fathers never gave,
seeking a self-worth we never would feel,
finding, for just a moment, a reason to go on.

What I know of life I learned in rebellion to a fat man’s god,
resisting his hatred and greed and comfort,
resisting to keep from seeing who I was,
finding hypocrisy in everyone.

What I know of life I learned beneath another man’s boot,
struggling to make it through a hell I’d chosen for myself,
struggling to keep hold of a person I wasn’t even sure I was,
finding strength I never knew existed.

What I know of life I learned in a haze,
going farther and farther with each trip,
going deeper and deeper into each bottle,
finding different perceptions through which to loathe the world.

What I know of life I learned in a cage,
surviving with the worst society could find,
surviving the reality of what I had become,
finding that a broken back doesn’t mean your dead

What I know of life I learned from living it.