Little child
Runnin' wild
Watch a while
You see he never smiles

Broken home
Father gone
Mama tired
So he's all alone

Kind of sad
Kind of mad
Ghetto child
Thinkin' he's been had

In the back of his mind he's sayin'
Didn't have to be here
You didn't have to love for me
While I was just a nothin' child
Why couldn't they just let me be
Let me be, let me be, let me be

One room shack
On the alley-back
Control, I'm told
From across the track

Where is the mayor
Who'll make all things fair
He lives outside
Our polluted air

And I didn't have to be here
You didn't have to love for me
While I was just a nothin' child
Why couldn't they just let me be
Let me be, let me be, let me be

I got a Jones
Runnin' through ma' bones
I'm sorry son
All your money's gone

Painful rip
In my upper hip
I guess it's time
To take another trip

Don't care what nobody say
I got to take the pain away
It's getting worser day by day
And all my life has been this way

Can't reason with the pusher man
Finance is all that he understands
You junkie, mama cries, you know
Would rip her, but I love her so
Love her so, now

Copyright: Warner Chappell Music, Inc., Word Collections Publishing
Writer(s): CURTIS MAYFIELD