A Pretty Soul

A pretty smile
A pretty soul
To look at her
You'd never know
Her heart was once
An empty hole
Just over a year before

A lovely child
Who grew too quick
And slipped on paths
That proved too slick
Whose poor soul
Became so sick
And grew darker even more

Her parents split
Her father left
And left her heart
Of love bereft
Her shattered hopes
Her spirit cleft
Tragedy befell the child

In her anger
Ran away
Before she knew
The price she'd pay
Began to wish
She'd thought to stay
She'd thrown herself to the wild

The things she did
She'd never speak
To earn her way
Week after week
Her future seemed
So dark and bleak
She'd come to accept her fate

She turned to drugs
To ease her pain
Began to drink
To hide from shame
Resigned to lose
And never gain
She bore the world's whole weight

Her apartment
Her dark room
Her TV glows
Amidst the gloom
Commercial ends
The show resume
Brother Graham begins to teach

She takes remote
Then sets it down
Her jumbled thoughts
Were spinning 'round
Eyes filled with tears
She fell to ground
Her heart begins to reach

So in her heart
Christ found a home
And pulled her from
The hell she roamed
He cleansed her soul
She's not alone
She's an angel taught to soar

A pretty smile
A pretty soul
To look at her
You'd never know
Her heart was once
An empty hole
Just over a year before

This poem was a finalist in the August 2010 poetry contest