Billboard Confession

He was a loner, keeping always to himself.
He didn't need friends or anyone else.
That's what he'd think when late night he cried
himself to sleep with a teddy bear by his side.

Fifteen, confused, and all out of sorts;
A brown nosed bear his only comfort.
Deep down inside hid a scared little boy
who'd had a hard life with so little joy.

A billboard stood seven blocks down
by a dark alley at the edge of town.
He never did walk that way,
but there was something he wanted to say.

So one day with paint in hand
in his mind he etched out a plan
to leave a message for all to see
on the billboard higher than fifty feet.

That night as people strolled the streets
they looked up and their hearts rapidly beat.
It was the only sound I'm sure they heard
as their eyes found and read these words:

"If you're reading this you should be ashamed,
for I needed your help and nobody came;
just anyone who'd ease the ache inside my head.
Now because of your selfishness I am dead."

At first people thought it was a bad dream
until they heard a woman scream.
They rushed over to find a body in her arms;
the child she'd given up, her only son.

(c) Mary Barren