Santino

see the lost boy
the sad one there
with eyes full of sand
the scars of sorrow cut
deep across
his face his heart
an abyss

bitter meals of leaves
and rainwater
through forests, rivers
wider than his short life,
dark
hiding
beasts with teeth

and far worse
the human
beasts who beat the blood
from a child's back
no teeth can pierce so deep

they say he was lucky to live
and they broke his spirit across
a thousand miles of desert
a child
running running
from the burning remains of
his life into
a future blistered black