12. Pennies in a Glass Jar
Pennies in a Glass Jar is about the small mercies and cruelties of childhood
survival — a brief friendship with a kind old man named Angel, a jar of
pennies saved from coins carelessly thrown on the floor, and the moment
the predator stole even that last little treasure, leaving a child on a
dirty couch with nothing but a toy army truck and the memory of the only
person who was ever kind to him.
By Thomas J. Allen, © 2026
Spoken Word
I was seven... maybe eight.
Allowed to roam the neighborhood, just to be out of his sight.
In the quiet of the streets, I met an old man named Angel.
He gave me a toy army truck. A simple smile.
For a few short months, his friendship was my only escape.
The only kindness I ever knew...
But every time the sun went down, I had to walk back to the nightmare.
And then one day... Angel was just gone.
Verse 1
Back to the man with the fangs, back to the house of pain,
Where innocence was stolen in the shadows and the rain.
The old man was a junk man, a scrapper hoarding scrap,
My hands were cut and bleeding, caught inside his vicious trap.
He made me work for nothing, I was bleeding out for free,
A tiny, broken servant to his sick reality.
He wiped away my dignity with brown paper bags,
Leaving just a hollow boy, dressed in dirty rags.
Pre-Chorus
He'd leave me outside the tavern, past midnight till two A.M.,
Hoping the pitch-black darkness would take me away.
He'd look me in the eyes, with a cold and soulless dread,
And tell me to my face that he wished that I was dead.
Chorus
Pennies in a glass jar, hidden in the dark!
The only shiny pieces that could ever leave a mark.
All my hopes and all my dreams, vanished on the floor,
When the monster took my treasure and he walked right out the door!
Stolen by the shadows, erased without a trace,
Crushed beneath the evil in this godforsaken place!
Verse 2
A house of pure evil, a twisted, wretched game,
I didn't even have a bed to shield me from the shame!
Sleeping on a dirty couch, down on the living room rug,
Where the drunken brother threw his coins with a careless little shrug!
I saved them on a little shelf, beneath the TV screen,
The only piece of magic that my hollow eyes had seen!
Pre-Chorus 2
Then the vampire took my pennies! He snatched the jar away!
"That is mine!" I cried to him, but the monster had his say!
He looked at me with pure evil, staring at my grief,
He stole the only thing I had, and he called ME the thief!
He took my only treasure, swallowed by the dark,
And left me on the dirty couch, bearing his sick mark!
Chorus
Pennies in a glass jar, hidden in the dark!
The only shiny pieces that could ever leave a mark.
All my hopes and all my dreams, vanished on the floor,
When the monster took my treasure and he walked right out the door!
Stolen by the shadows, erased without a trace,
Crushed beneath the evil in this godforsaken place!
Spoken Word Prayer
I looked up at the ceiling from that living room floor...
Is this what humanity is, Father? Is there nothing more?
Did You cast me down to Earth just to suffer in the flesh?
To bleed upon the scrap metal, caught inside this mesh?
Surrounded by the evil, in a world that doesn't give a damn!
Surrounded by the monsters, like a wolf's hunting lambs!
Is this what You created, Father?! A cage without a key?!
Why did You send me down here... just to abandon me?!
Chorus
Pennies in a glass jar, hidden in the dark!
The only shiny pieces that could ever leave a mark.
All my hopes and all my dreams, vanished on the floor,
When the monster took my treasure and he walked right out the door!
Stolen by the shadows, erased without a trace,
Crushed beneath the evil in this godforsaken place!
Outro
I kept the toy army truck...
I remembered Angel's face...
The only piece of heaven...
In a godforsaken place.