"he looks like twelve,

but feels like thirty."

It makes me think of industrial revolution worker average death age and how life didn't last long for any of them. 12...12, such a youthful age and yet to feel 30! Yet there are people out there that feel old inside when they aren't... obviously his is for a different reason.

You have nice rhyming; I was never much of a rhymer.

Why not give the kid a pair of shoes? - but there are so many barefooted children, so I suppose candy is just easier to give. When we give impoverished children candy, does it help anything?

:( oh, the sadness.