~
I been accosted,
battered & beat;
left as unearthly,
an orphan of street,

where people pass by me;
I’m no one, to meet!
all I got goin’
before me, my feet.

Once I was someone,
I had it made;
but now I am no one,
I’m nobody, Babe.

Yeah, I had a woman,
the almighty Buck;
but loosing religion,
I don’t give a fuck!

Many’s the label,
one gifts from the street;
labels make someone,
something complete.

I had been broken,
arisen, been brave;
but life’s more that this, here–
mere shadows in caves.

Where everything’s done,
or otherwise made;
whether or not,
if thought of or said –

It is what it is, Babe,
and all that it was –
mere shadows a dancin’
in bat-withered caves.
~

©2016, Marvin Welborn
01 July 2016. Revised 6 Aug 16.