Same year as I in junior high is a kid with eyes of steel
Got a stare so full of glare and dare that you know just how he feels
A ready rage beyond his age lives the wrong way down the street
No tight belt and no tyrant cage can knock him off his feet
I don't know what is wrong with him and the older folks don't care
They just want him to move along and not hang out right there

[Chorus:]
Boy is getting older getting stronger getting colder
He's on his way to the only place he should (or maybe only place he could) go

Go where you will not until you turn eighteen
Some get high and just get by while other kids get mean
Cigarettes and plastic bags across from the high school
Slinging adolescent slag checking out the gene pool
Still see him every now and then in class for a day or two
Or later in the parking lot with an eager ether crew

[Chorus]

Go off to work forty hours and more
My parents help to get me in at a friend-of-a-friend's store
And this kid nineteen same as me is in the news today
They found three bodies in the dirt off McKenzie Highway
15, 15, 13 years be still their beating hearts
My classmate and two friends of his have torn their worlds apart

They sent a priest to talk to him and find out what went wrong
And they taped every word and tear of that conversation
Now he's got no bills to pay no minimum wage petty task
They will cook one meal for him exactly as he asks

[Chorus:]
Boy is growing older learning faster feeling colder
He's on his way to the only place he should go
Maybe he's on his way to the only place he could go
And that boy was never meant to do anyone no good
Boy was never meant to do anything no good