Born into the fire just another white-hot soul and just like a baby 'bout ten thousand years ago Watching daddy drinking learned to bleed my mama's pain It hurt to watch him beat her i loved him just the same i will never forget the first time i heard my brother cry Four years old, starving and cold i hugged him, baby don't you cry Children don't feel pain They'll run naked in the rain When the wounds begin to drain remember Children don't feel pain Sheriff come in the morning with the rent man at the door They set us on the sidewalk like a thousand times before Mama Mama, come find us here you've been working day and night There's two strong boys to help you see when the drunk man beats your eyes i will never forget the first time i heard my mama cry The monster came and he called my name i hugged her, Mama don't you cry Children don't feel pain They'll run naked in the rain When the wounds begin to drain remember Children don't feel pain Born in school lunchrooms pretending to eat, the lie Damn the tears, sweet smell of food the snickers, "White trash, cry" Watched my brother break the doors to taste that precious prize and they punished the cold lunch bandit eater of cookies - teller of lies i will never forget the first time the terror 'cross his eyes Reform school grief for the cookie thief loneliness, oh eater of lies Children don't feel pain They'll run naked in the rain When the wounds begin to drain remember Children don't feel pain Yes, sent into a madhouse some idiot called school physically blind and mental ashamed to be the fool Too many busy teachers mistook my lost direction as a way to get more than others of their precious wise attention i will never forget the first time to my ten-year-old surprise beaten before the class choked unconscious by Mister Teacher, God damn his eyes That is when i learned to walk with God to break away and die to never have to answer them brother don't you cry At eleven-years-old, a man child i raised a knife to my father's back as he scalded and beat my mother unaware of my attack She cried to me, "Oh please, no no!" He laughed that she might beg In shame i hid the knife away and pissed down both my legs And one year, century later a chicken coop - edge of hell was home to my six brothers and sisters my father and me as well Mama was working and trying to save up and sneak us away My baby brother was freezing Winter would have her say Children don't have needs some are flowers, some are weeds You have to know which ones to feed when they're old enough to bleed My brother was my Robin Hood the treasures he would bring for me to hide and share with them smile little changelings And sometimes he'd get caught pull his pants down, prepare to die and bleed to the leather and steel belt buckle It won't stop until you cry i will never forget the first time i stripped him whipped him until he cried and the shame i'll feel forever at that old self-righteous pride "Pull those pants down C'mon, all the way to the floor! Get up! I didn't tell you to fall down when I hit you! Get up! 'Cause i'm gonna beat you i'm gonna beat you some more!" Children don't learn how to sin don't know what they've seen where they've been Children don't learn how to sin Where does hate, do the lies begin? Yeah i was a hero while my brother ran away to steal i stayed home and learned to be a responsible father to my father and mother and brothers and sisters hoping my partner, the thief would sneak back and slip me a meal The hungry disappointment when he'd get caught made it easy to condemn Eating those bags full of lies it's a wonder that truth would ever get in We never thought about life how much better it could be Better was a warm bed with fourteen wiggly feet Looking back I don't believe we thought about ourselves as kids The arena was too real, the blood game prices for the things we did i will never forget the first time my brother told me about getting laid He was eight and i was nine Eight years later it happened to me and i am still afraid i cried in the spotlight hospital waiting room as i told my brothers and sisters the doctor-God's message of doom Daddy was seeing spiders and snakes crawling across his skin I hugged those six skinny Children whose survival was their sin i will never forget my twelfth year explaining that Godawful lie to my brother of brothers all five of the others Our Daddy is going to die Ten thousand years we have wandered the agony two souls crossed yet destined to fly as one 'cross the plane dual Karmic blood warriors To share is to grow, to part is to perish alone in the desert, desert of lies i will never forget the first time i saw my brother's prison eyes the guilt i felt as i knelt to wait for him for the pieces he left inside Children don't know love's feelings aren't aware of healing don't approach God en masse shaking kneeling Children think they can talk to God We'll teach out of that feeling My heart lies heavy in my breast vast stone canyon keeper of secret passages There are five warm dwellings there vibrant and alive with the good fire of love's messages Each bears the name of one of my Children to keep myself whole for nothing is whole without a piece at least, of all its parts What precious gift, the knowledge God walks in my garden love castle, stone heart i will never forget to forget as all our lives pass me by for i am younger than my Children now i'm going down with my brother to cry Children know hidden secrets love without words or books The true key is innocence to seek, to find, while others only look i have never born physical yet in all ways see it through Sometimes it is hard to remember what i came back here to do Yet all the threads of life i touch make a web of love for me i rejoice to be here with them to be one with those who See i will never forget the first time a tear fell from my eye the wonderful glow of your beautiful soul Baby don't you cry