Ricky came stumbling across the lawn,
Through the door, without a T-shirt on,
By his sister, almost trampling his niece,
To his room to find a spot to hide his piece.
Scrapes on his back and down his side,
A busted lip and one blackened eye,
Pants torn from scaling a cyclone fence,
To his sister and mother it made no sense.
You see, Ricky wasn\'t the fighting kind,
He didn\'t fit in, eventually he stop trying,
The names and cruel things they\'d say,
When it was discovered Ricky was gay.
Ricky knew at age 12 he was different,
He felt like an outcast and a total misfit,
He tried his best to suppress his feelings,
But the more he did his mind kept reeling.
16 now and 2 years of continual abuse,
Figuring he deserved it, was his excuse,
To allow the others to beat and badger,
Because of his belief his life didn\'t matter.
That all changed the summer of last year,
Walking down the street in certain fear,
He walked with a guy he\'d been seeing,
Noticing the others, now had them fleeing.
They split directions for a better shot,
to get away without both being caught,
Ricky escaped but his friend did not,
Beaten so bad he died on the spot.
Sickened, he vowed never again to run,
Since that day, in his waistband was a gun,
6 months later without a major incident,
And not a bullet from the cartridge spent.
Though today his whole life would change,
Going home from school he felt strange,
He stayed late so now it was almost dark,
Still he chose the shortcut through the park.
Halfway in, hand upon the gun in his waist,
When suddenly 3 others were up in his face,
Hit hard he fell and thoughts of his friend,
Told him to fight back or this will be his end.
Gun now in hand, still lying on the ground,
He shot and one by one they went down,
Bleeding from his eye as he rose to his feet,
Wiping with his shirt he started to the street.
Running scared, he was at a full sprint,
3 dead because they would not relent,
Today Ricky kept his word to fight back,
Tomorrow, charged for this murderous attack.
So Ricky, frantically telling what he had done,
Kissed his mom, then took the car on the run,
That day Ricky left his home in a whirlwind,
Never to be seen by his family ever again.