He was dazed when he came, and dazed when he left.

I said hi,
and he stared back.
I thought he wanted to
beat
me
up.

but instead
he had just gotten the beating,
not twenty minutes ago.

at first
i just wanted to
convince him
not to
pop
a
cap

but i soon found out
that it was more then his
jaw
that was
jacked
up.

well anyways, It looked like he was going to cry, and i couldn't help but feeling like it was the most sincere face I've ever seen anyone make.
he said over and over again that he didn't know why they did it.

he opened up his cheek and showed me the place where his teeth hit his gums.

I told him not to kill anyone and i walked away and so did he.


when we had reached the car, i asked if we could turn around and go back to talk to him,
and so we made our way down the street, past the stop sign and into the path of him.

I yelled, "hey nick, can i talk to you for a second?"

and i proceeded to ask if i could, and then pray for him.

and it was an awkward, lacking, unmotivating prayer.

and he said it was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for him yet.

and he just stumbled away into the night, as soon as he'd come.

and neither of us were the better for it.

I felt like i hadn't made a dent, and I'm sure he felt dented beyond repair.