Societies Outcast

by Sherry Lynn   Apr 4, 2005


***Thank You Zy for helping me with this last piece! I could not have mastered it without your input.***

Just a young child
Barely even ten
An outcast from society
Before his life began.

Mental illness was his crime
Not stealing or killing
Like so many in his time

No choice to be made
Not on his end
Mental illness staked its claim
As it did with many kids

Bullied and shunned away
Was the price to be paid
Not given the chance to know
How to live life another way

Isolation and rejection
Soon paved the way
For anger and resentment
To control all his days

Just barely a young child
Only ten years old
Already an outcast from society
With no where else to go

Left feeling betrayed and ashamed
He took his own
Before his life
Had a chance to really begin

© Sherry L. Richardson
Though I am blessed with a child that suffers from Mental Illness I am also blessed that my child has not attempted to take his life. This poem is true in alot of aspects for me, but unfortunately many others have gone beyond my experience and treaded the waters of losing their child to suicide.

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Latest Comments

  • 18 years ago

    by hayley williams

    Thank You for sharing this beautiful poem. I AM the child with mental illness, well I am 21 but i still feel like a scared and lonely little girl. Rollo May once said "Depression is the inability to build a future". I think in my case thats true.
    xx

  • 18 years ago

    by AlexJ

    A very good and emotional poem. I like the content and the flow! Really great job!

  • 18 years ago

    by Kevin

    Nice one sherry. I work with young children who are quite severely disabled in some cases and many is the time i've looked at them and wondered why they are alive.

    Kinda like the metallica song "one".

    This poem really hammered home in a very simple way your feelings on this matter.

    If i were to offer any advice it would be that is contained no metaphor and was potentially too clear cut in that there was nothing to work out or infer.

  • 18 years ago

    by Jacklyn

    "Left feeling betrayed and ashamed
    He took his own
    Before his life
    Had a chance to really begin" that was really the only part i really stummbled over when reading the poem.

    maybe "Left feeling betrayed and ashamed,
    his own life he took,
    a life to young to end,
    Never reaching the chance to really begin.

    i don't know it's up to you. great message though it's really sad and heartbreaking.

    ~Jacklyn

  • 18 years ago

    by jencam

    The insight thru the mind of a child suffering from mental illness is amazing. This is an amazing piece. Thanks for sharing

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