The child in me was punished
For sins I was too young to share in
Not to spare the rod, not to spoil the child
Not to spill the drink in your hand
Not to let you down, how did I let you fall
When I could barely walk, barely talk
And I grew up angry, I wonder why
I wonder how, I grew up at all

The man in me was incomplete
For the sins I was told that I would do
I searched them out, I made the lie true
But I am a man on my own
Not the child I was, not a crying child now
Look I can stand and run, and look for time
And that’s just what I did, out of time I ran
Wonder how I ran the race at all

It’s September now in my mind
But no one is promised an October
I have dreamed of it, but dreams are just that
Something I use to pass the night
As the night passes, as the nights often do
And the days often too, pass me by
But it is still now, and I am still here
Wondering what the child ever saw in me

The child has never been spoiled
The rod was never spared, but here I am
Old yet departing from the brokenness
Escaping from what’s not my life
Just how it began, when I was a young man
Too young to understand what I would become
When I grew up to be who I am
When I grew up inside the I am that I am

© 2017 Tim D. Coulter Sr.