As a child, my family was well-off,

My brother and I could even be

Considered spoiled children who

Lacked absolutely nothing as far

As their basic needs went, and had

All the latest toys and things kids

Wanted in the 80's, 'cause their parents

Inundated them on Christmases

And birthdays with all they wanted.

(In winter, our dad would convert

Our backyard into an iceskating rink,

And mom bought us loads of clothes

And even sewed outfits we wanted too,

The nice things they did in contrast to

What was going on, there's a contradiction

There difficult to reconcile to this day)

But the instability of their mental

States made all of that pretty secondary,

When all of our space was occupied by

Mayhem, fear, and violent tendencies.

Yes, we pretty much had everything,

Except the love and security of parents.

It was a tense situation always having

To be on your toes to avoid harm,

So yes, we had everything, but not quite.

Then one day, mom decided we needed

To get away from dad, so we ran away

One after school afternoon, just picked

Up a few bags of clothes and left

Without warning or goodbyes to anyone.

Our new place is where began our life

In the severest of poverty, we had nothing.

The shelter found us an apartment and

The Salvation army furnished it all.

Mom was too sick by that point to be

Financially independent, so we had to

Rely on social assistance which wasn't

Much, plus mom wasn't all too there

To manage it well either.  So going

Hungry was something I had to learn

To deal with, and I did.  Not having

Clothes or boots, I also learned to

Deal with that.  We were just poor.

I've lived both extremes of financial

Situations, in different contexts, 

And both had a profound effect on me.

I wonder sometimes how my life

Would have turned out had things

Started on a different footing for me.

Everything was so hard for so long,

It really felt like there was no way out.

But somehow, I got there in the end.