Confessions of A Bully

With all the bully talk lately it's time to hear from the other side.

I was the class bully when I was in school

Showed any weakness and you were my tool

Recesses and locker rooms I was the king

    Everyone knew not to say anything

 

  Always in trouble for starting up fights

     Easy enough for someone to incite

I knew all about the strong and the weak

I wrote the book on the law of my street

 

I teased and intimidated whoever I pleased

  I could make anyone get on their knees

I was the worst kind of childhood regression

  Being fueled by unchanneled aggression

 

I beat up the years and started high shcool

  and I had perfected the art of the cruel

 No one dared give me any kind of s**t

    Everyone knew to zip up their lip

 

Strutting down hall ways I owned them all

  I had an entourage at my beckon call

I didn't have to fight anyone anymore

  That's what all my lackey's were for

 

Then my world got turned upside down

 When my first girlfriend came around

   I was a pariah and a nasty kill joy

  But some girls can't resist a bad boy

 

  We made out just about all the time

I felt like a prince with her hand in mine

  she left me for a big highschool jock

I thought my universe was falling apart

 

  When the smoke cleared and I was alone

The pain in my heart had melted the stone

    I could see fear in kids terrified eyes

    I knew respect through fear was a lie

 

   I changed my ways and bullied no more

Graduated high school and joined the corps

  Left my home town and never went back

It's a s**t little place full of ugly flashbacks

 

High school reunion there's no flipping way

       What would I do what could I say

  Hi here comes your worst childhood fears

The one that kept you in therapy for years

 

    I deeply regret everything that I did

    Every last fight every scared little kid

   So here's a bit of reformed bully advice

  If you love to bully you're wasting your life

 

 

Author's Note

Okay I wasn't quite atillia the flipping hun in school but was in constant trouble for fighting and yes I was a school yard terror and here's the problem with kids that bully.It works and in a perverse way it is empowering. Some kids are terrified while others think you're the coolest kid they've ever met and while most girls think you're an asshole some of them find you irresistable. Bullying's a vicious circle that's never going to end, kind of like war. Don't excpect that to stop anytime soon either.

Reviews

[Seamstress]

Wow, this is something so very many kids of today need to read. I see so very many bullies and they just don't get that the bullying will not get them many good places in life if they keep it up.
I'm tempted to edit it a bit (for language) and read it to my students giving you all of the credit of course.

[Baby Ricochet]

You can do that. Thank you for reviewing Confessions Seamstress

[Mary]

What's really good about this poem is the raw honesty- the admission of the kick it gave the bully to humiliate, to have toadies and yes men, to be attractive to some girls. Oddly, it was the rejection of a girl that causes the bully to turn things around. Well done. High school is such a battleground, eh? You've addressed a real problem (and I agree, it is a never-ending cycle) in a real, ungussied up way. I hope you find a way to make this more public.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for reviewing Bully Mary.

[unknown]

Good write. It's good to see that some bullys actually do change, and turn into something amazing in the end of everything. I wish I would've had someone write this when I was younger. It would've changed a lot of things. :)

Great job. Thanks for writing this.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for reviewing confessions.

[.]

I love how you coined the term "reformed bully". Great job.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for reviewing confessions cord

[anxia]

its good to hear it straight from a 'reformed bully'. I love how you are strong enough to make the confessions and for sharing the lesson you have learnt as an advice:)

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for reviewing confessions.

[nigrum homonculus]

ok you already know i got the 50 shades of s**t kicked out of me when i was in school. if you made this when i was 15. legit i would of printed it off and stuck it on some bullies forehead. it kinda made me rethink my thoughts of exacting revenge aswell man...thanks for this epic write. f*****g brilliant.

[Baby Ricochet]

Yeah I know. I thought you'd like this one. Thanks for reviewing confessions PhilGod

[A love for poetry]

Brilliant; got to know bad to know good. The rhyming and the story kept strong all the way through. "reformed bully advice" catchy!

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for reviewing confessions Mr B

[Annabelle Lee]

its very upsetting and a bit pathetic.... but it is, however, a path..... sometimes kids need to be on the bad side of things to realize how they can get to the good... i know, im spouting a bunch of sentimental crap but its true. and apparently you turned out alright so things can turn for the better... even for the bad boys

[Baby Ricochet]

Oh I got my comeupins in boot camp, that was for damn sure. Thankyou for reviewing confessions Annabelle.

[Rene Velez]

Great work, well written indeed, I was never a Bully but I can relate.

[Baby Ricochet]

THank you for reviewing Confessions Rene. I'm glad to see you online after Sandy clobbered you're town. I love NYC and It pains me to see it beaten down like this.

[Tai Ryens]

Simple, empowering, bit humorous every now and then, and you've a classic, meaningful poem. Normally, I would oppose poems such as this; viewing through only the preys' eyes, but you are a much different case. You've firmly stated both the perks and flaws of being one such bully. One by one, you let your ideas slide by in an organized pattern, allowing each word to straightforwardly affect the mind-state of the reader.

One last comment: the way you present such a concept compliments the way you end it, giving way to flashbacks of the life of the character in your mind. No insult is flung onto anybody, no discrimination towards bullies, no blasphemy about how bullies are descendants of the devil himself (indeed, I've heard comments like that), but only advice that is meant to strike the heart of the reader.
Well done.

[Baby Ricochet]

Bullies aren't the desendents of anything, They're just confused, dumb kids reacting. THank you for reviewing confessions Tai