Never knew his father,
people who had said that was good.
His momma smoked her some crack
And sold her ass on Cedar Road.

John was twice sent away to prison,
for a total of fourteen years.
He came out a different man,
heart full of anger, eyes full of tears.

Judge told him he was worthless,
couldn’t follow white man’s rules.
Seems a lot of people need to walk a mile
in a man like John Doe’s shoes.

Cold stiff and still on a stainless table
With a gunshot to the chest.
“Hey Doc, ain’t the cause of death kinda obvious?”
People really never knew about him,
don’t really care and don’t wanna know.
On the tag they hung upon his left foot,
they wrote a name, it was “John Doe”.

(The verses to a song I wrote a couple of years back.)