Our children come home asking,
“What does this word mean?”,
And the label is vile and vulgar,
You can’t ignore the question,
And answering is one of those
“Square your shoulders and be an adult” moments,
And our children look as if struck by ten ton beams,
Someone called them “that”? “Why?”

You realize, again, how useless are platitudes,
“Sticks and stones… Words will never hurt me.”
Wrong! Worthless as saying,
“It doesn’t matter we know the truth.”
But 99 out of 100 kids at school?
They believe this lie that morphs into
A life of its own before the 3:00 bell,
And how useless is it to say, “Let it be”?
Or talking to the school?

Anti-bullying policies may be tough on paper,
But the underbelly of them reeks,
Teachers can’t be there every second,
Police can’t monitor every social media site,
Friends have to go home sometime,
Self-defense only gets everyone in trouble,
Every temporary plug eventually leaks,
Being bullied hurts us all the way through.

So we’re left with why it happens,
And here’s the truth, we teach it.
Yes, we do, we create lies instead of accept facts in life,
We exaggerate mistakes to make ourselves look better,
We fight to have our rights, regardless.
We spread gossip like fertilizer,
We’re quick to protest rather than sit,
And examine the truth.

We promote our arrogance in our ignorance,
Our pride waves before humbleness,
Our tempers speak without filters,
Our actions make lies of our promises,
Sending mixed messages to our children,
Castrates our men and violates our women,
All the while saying “don’t bully” with falseness,
That’s why our children bully, you know, don’t you?

We don’t want it to be what it is but it is,
Because we have taught them,
Demand tolerance for your differences,
But don’t tolerate someone else’s.
Claim every privilege and blessing as your right,
And never, ever yield to the greater good,
Above all else pretend not to keep score but win,
This is the truth of bullying.

Until we teach everyone something different,
This is only going to worsen,
Fester like an untreated infection
Covered with pretty bandages,
Eased pain with misused medicine or pot,
While we dance around the issues,
Blame Hollywood for the cursin’,
But truth is that bullying starts at home.
       -dfav 1/31/17

—Donna