Earning Dante's Fire

The child inside huddles, seeking 
recognition, I'm not what I appear to be
The child of a child and a man who is to me no more
Life is cruel they say, 'it'll let you down"
The cruelty in life is self inflicted says I
A remembrance of "nothing in life is free"
How it hurts, the struggle within
The conflict of a tortured soul, a skeleton reeking
You who life's measure is a matter of circumstance
Labor by the day, kiss your loved ones with a frown
When at ten, after leaving at seven
As a literate, possess the bloody crown
An aftereffect, guilted to rule
Never in my childhood dreams was I another man's tool
Yet here I write, alone in this dark room
Another castaway, Stevenson's golden chest, a witty fool
By piracy or by right, child of a child, a father no more
Imagines existence absent continually seeking
Robbed of the tools a fool knows
The child strikes out, fearing the reeking corpse
Repose comes with the calm, when the calm does come
Sadly, repose is infrequent, she ebbs with the seasons
In between, I suffer to indulge method, reason
Where were you? I query, on that day, I postulate
Kissing the bloody crown, he says. Loving the blood rule.
I see you in my dreams my friend, my everlasting 
Always there, always here, forever there
Knowing you don't know, knowing that fear
An island of treasure, your heart's desire
Forfeited the love of a child, earned Dante's fire