Welcome To the Jungle

I grew up on the streets Where you fought for your life -- Welcome to the Jungle Meant fighting to survive. Shelter in a cardboard box, Bloated and flimsy Like that homeless teenager -- Pregnant with her father’s baby And who escaped home because Here Anywhere Would be better than The Hell She was in. Welcome to the Jungle Meant food was a delicacy -- Dirty, bleeding hands sifting through dumpsters -- **** you’d never eat unless you had to But which to you meant one word: Survival. Welcome to the Jungle: You can take whatever you want As long as it’s not from me: Truer words were never spoken. Girls no younger than that little niece, Or that little sister, You loved with all your heart, Forced to prostitute herself for dimes That might get her a warm meal. Girls that should be in school And going to the mall with friends. Welcome to the Jungle Where those things are as foreign to them As a warm house and a loving family. Girls Who are too young To know of blowjobs And back alley abortions Of meth and pills -- Of alcohol and rape – Of STDS and pregnancy -- Of madness and fear. A skid mark on the road of humanity A scar across the face of a nation Who claims to be great And whose power Lies in her people. But what do you do With those people Who are ignored, ridiculed – Treated as sub-humans? All we want Is a little sympathy. All we want Is a voice. All we want, Is for life to stop shitting on us, Long enough for us To make that climb Out of that hole And back into the light. But that’s easier said than done. Because when you live in the Jungle Where every day is a fight for survival, How do you plan for a future That ends at the end of the day And starts all over again The next?