I'm not like everyone else, I don't have to be, I'm cool with that. ;-)


The Bully




You all know the type,
The one that picks on you
Because you're different....
At school it was because I had freckles,
I had red hair and a single mother
I was smart, the top of my class
People who wore second hand clothes
Weren't meant to be clever

I was intelligent yes, but naive
Went to church with my grandparents
While mum slept off her hangover
Walked blindly through life
Not understanding bias or cruelty
I trusted everyone without question
And when they hurt me
The confusion stung more than the bruises

What were they trying to do?
Bash me into not being a redhead?
Smack me into being stupid?
I walked home from school crying
With busted lips and torn clothes
Wondering why I had even been born
Cursed with a mind that wouldn't stop
And a heart that felt too much

So I locked myself in my room daily
With an old lined school book
The used pages carefully removed
Center staple pressed back down
And I wrote my plight out, line by line
Tears streaming down my cheeks
Blotting the paper, blurring my vision
I wrote, for all that I was worth

Decades later, part of me is still the same
My mind still does not stop, nor my heart
But I understand that people judge me
By their own standards, not mine
The ugly they see isn't mine either
I have taken the abuse, physical and mental
Wrestled with my mind, the logic, lack of,
I'm ok with me, and the bully will never win









Poetry by Purple Phoenix
Read 712 times
star mini Editors' choice
Written on 2009-12-22 at 03:03

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For years it used to befuddle me why some people feel a need to bully. After all, it takes some energy and planning, and even some creativity, in a nefarious sort of way. We had plenty of them in the public schools I attended. They seemed to base their entire lives on doing their very best to ruin someone else's day.

I finally concluded that they must get some kind of emotional pay-off for it. A sense of power perhaps. I think maybe it's wired into their brains somehow. I still see bullies around all the time, though they are a little more subtle in their imperious ways. One good example in the workplace is the current trendy accusation "You don't like change!" meaning I don't like the particular change they are trying to burden me with.

Fortunately, as is clearly the case with you, we can rise above this emotional dictatorship and go on with our lives.
2009-12-30


Editorial Team The PoetBay support member heart!
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2009-12-23


Brian Oarr
It's said,"What doesn't defeat us makes us stronger." And you, Rache are one of the strongest women I've ever known.

I really related to your being poor, as a child. We were so poor, I had to wear a pair of my mother's shoes to school for a time. But, you know what? Money is all but irrelevent to me today. And charity comes from roots deep inside my being.

This poem helped me to reflect and remember. Gracias!

Brian
2009-12-23


jenks The PoetBay support member heart!
"the ugly they see isnt mine either"
what a wonderful line!
being different hurts when we are young...but as we age it becomes a joy...
this is good because you have described a situation with no self pity...shows strength and integrity.
bookmarked.
2009-12-23


liz munro The PoetBay support member heart!
LOVE the final line.

Such a moving write.

~L.~
2009-12-22


Stan Cooper The PoetBay support member heart!
Purp...this is great, sad throughout but uplifting at the end...

Loved it, and by the way, I'd never bash you for being a
red-head...I love red heads

xxx Stan
2009-12-22


Eli The PoetBay support member heart!
Nice one Sis! x
2009-12-22