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(Over 200,000 people each year in the world die due to alcohol)

There's a child sitting on a sidewalk
wet, hungry and cold.
Trying to get some food money,
but only growing old.

There's a bottle in his hand,
and his shoes are full of sand;
only dreaming of a no-man's land.

He leans against his worn sleeping bag,
his only comfort zone;
one of many children with no home.

He forgets about his parents,
his bottle kept him warm,
the memories he did mourn.

He changed his life with the bottle,
and his sadness changed me,
because he made me see.

Don't take life for granted;
there's always somebody who loves you so.
Don't give up when life gets you down,
because there's still a life you hardly know.

God spoke to the man with the bottle,
and gave him the courage to throttle.
He went and said to his Mom and Dad
of how he became so sad,

All he wants is their love;
not a child with a bottle.

Philip Fletcher (c) 1997