Scrawny, lean and wiry
With a mop of hair
And eyes so mild,
He was just a child.

And yet,

He sat around the house all day,
In corners and cupboards ,you see.
Whispering and moaning
And talking to himself,
And ever so often, scream would he.

Rumours spread about the town,
Of the strange boy around.
His parents said he was shy, was mild,
Oh let him be!
He is just a child.

And yet,

He said he wasn’t lying.
He said they moved and talked to him.
He said he was telling the truth.
The shadows were coming for him.

His parents sent him to school,
To a counsellor,
To a physiatrist.
He’d be checked and scanned and filed,
Then sent home.
He was just a child.

And yet,

The police was called
The day he went missing.
They traced the area,
And took time in listening
To his mother who cried out in pain,
But all in vain,
He was just a child.