WOUNDS OF A BULLY

[MARCIA KOSTERKA]

This poem has been a long time coming and its timing is right. It has a distinct message about something we have all been guilty of, the victim of, or know someone who has been one. I am personally grateful that today’s climate shows promise in changing old attitudes. Much is yet to be accomplished. The wounds I speak of are of victims and bullies, both human beings.

From the first day a baby cries,
Till the day when an old man dies,
If a fragile child, stumbles and falls,
To cause an injured knee, a caring mother calls.
“It will be all better, I know just what to do.”
He knows what mamma says, will always hold true.

Someone from the school, called Dad at work today.
“We need your presence, can you please find a way?”
A bully stood over a kid on the ground.
The kid lay quietly, not making a sound.
“Stay where you are, or I’ll hit you again.
I hate your kind, and the color of your skin.”

Coming into your own, will often make a heart weary.
If you go down the wrong path, it will cost you dearly.
Supposed to be friends, may call you short, ugly or fat.
But they still come around, now stop and think about that.
They say you have no sense, to come in from the rain.
Yet they fail to understand, your reflection of pain.

When bullies are foreign, there comes a call to arms.
Many will answer the call, from cities and farms.
One soldier feels the pain, from a wound that bleeds.
Another feels the pain, of a comrade in need.
A bully in life, is now a battle wounded soul,
Saved by a once victim, who is now made whole.

Coming home to a hero’s welcome, the two stand tall.
For one a lesson learned, that bullies are not men at all.
For the other, has come a final vindication,
Of a long awaited notice, and a relief of indication,
That the bully who fails to see the path of right,
May someday find his victim, to be the one who shines him light.

It is a sad thing to say that when victims of bullies and bullies themselves, serve our country and pay their dues, come home mangled and damaged for life, physically and psychologically, our system of government, the VA in particular, does not pay its dues back to these heroes who gave so much for the freedoms we often take for granted.

CaptainRon65

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