Beautiful Swan

It made you feel so good

To make me feel so bad

It was a sick game you liked to play

Who could hurt Haley the most?

 

It made you feel so powerful

The effect your words had on me

It made you feel important

The control you held over me

 

I believed everything you told me

That I was undeserving of being loved

I would forever be the ugly duckling

The caterpillar who never became a butterfly

 

I existed for you to laugh at

My sole purpose was to entertain you

I was your personal punching bag

Because I never fought back

 

For thirteen years I put up with it

I let you pull me apart and break my heart

Until I got out of that wretched place

Into the sun, where I saw the new day

 

One day I woke up and had an epiphany

I realized all the lies you told to me

I was never an ugly duckling

All along I was a beautiful swan

 

I emerged from my cocoon a butterfly

And you came out a moth

I grew my wings and I escaped

When I’m in the sky you can’t touch me

 

I leave behind a rainbow wherever I go

While all you do is rain down gray

I’m colorful and filled with life

I hear your words but they don’t matter now

 

It made you feel so good

To make me feel so bad

But you don’t have that power anymore

Because now I’m the one in control

Author's Note

I've written quite a few poems about my experiences with being bullied, but this is the first time that I've really believed what I've written, that I believe everything they said to me was a lie, that I'm not the horrible person they made me feel like I was.