Did You Ever Fail Lord?

[Intro]
David was a clumsy kid
with a humpy sort of face
that always looked dirty.
David always seemed to be falling down
or tripping over someone
or getting in the way
or bothering other people.

The teacher was always yelling at him
for something.
His parents yelled at him,
his friends yelled at him.
In fact, everybody seemed to yell at him,
but no one ever listened to him.
He was just David,
bothersome David.

But David wasn't a fool.
He knew how the others treated him,
and it was hard to take,
very hard.

These are David's thoughts about himself
as a failure:

---

No one pays any attention to me
or what I say, Lord.
I'm nobody, I guess.
I haven't done anything important
or made anything
or won anything.
No one listened when I talk,
no one asks my opinion.
I'm just there
like a window
or a chair.

I tried to build a boat once,
but it fell apart.
I tried to make the baseball team,
but I always threw past third base.
I wrote some articles
for our school paper,
but they didn't want them.
I even tried out for the school play,
but the other kids laughed
when I read my lines.
I seem to fail
at everything.

I don't try anymore
because I'm afraid to fail.
And no one likes to fail
all the time.

If only there was something I could do,
something I could shout about,
something I could make
that was my work,
only mine.
And people would say,
"David did that!"
And my parents would say,
"We are proud of you, son!"

But I can't do anything.
Everyone else is so much better
at everything
than I am.
The more I fail
the more it eats away at me
until I feel weak inside.
I feel like I'm nothing.

Lord,
the world seems full of heroes
and idols and important people.

Where are all the failures?
Where are they hiding?
Where are people like me?
Did you ever fail, Lord?
Did you?
Do you know how I feel?
Do you know what its like
when everyone looks up to you and says:
"He's a failure."

[The poem came from a book with the title 'For Mature Adults Only'. I stumbled upon the book when I was looking for the references for the related lit for my critique. The book is a collection of teenage poems, their cries and prayer, and this was one entry that struck me the most. Those were very strong words in my opinion. I could relate to the poem in a way that there are times that I feel like I'm a failure, in several ways. I guess David has just expressed those feelings that I can't put into words. Isn't it harder feeling like a failure than committing a mistake? You could make a rebound from making a mistake but it's not that easy when you failed someone... Or is it just the same? I know it might not yet be too late to redeem myself but... will I still have the courage to do so?