Life can be happy, of life we can we can be glad.

Life can be depressing, life can be sad.

The ups and downs, some learn to take,
but for 'James' life meant heartbreak.

 

His life never was what he wanted it to be,
James thought to live, was to be free.

So he turned his back on family and friends
to a life of lonely, and seem-less dead ends.

 

However, with this life he could not cope,
so he turned to drugs which gave false hope.

To the needle, which was his way out

and the only companion he did not doubt.

 

Now as James lie cold on the floor
at eighteen he is beyond life's door.

The final trip, he should not have taken,
a trip from which he will not awaken.

 

Deaths from drugs are not rare,
they happen to anyone, anywhere.

Then, the question we often ask, is why
in this way our kids are maimed or even die.

 

The reasons are many, a common one is ample,
we as adults, are often a poor example.

We do influence them, that pill or two to lighten the load,
or that drink too many, which is one for the road.

 

The time has come to show our kids that we truly care
it is happening, here and now, not way over there.

If from us, something real is gained,
then all the mental illness, even deaths, are not in vain.©

 

(Written in 1976, Copyright Reserved)