A narrative poem about bullying. Based on a true story.
FAGGOT
He was a chunky, awkward, and short 15 year old
who wore coke bottle glasses, spoke with a slight lisp
and walked with a gimpy step
due to his left leg being two inches longer than his right
School was not a kind place for him
because of his lisp and awkward walk
nearly everyone called him “faggot”
Although he was tormented
by the majority of the student body
the jocks gave it to him the worst
When walking through the hallways to class
they’d regularly slap him upside the head
shove him into a locker, or play keep away with his glasses
On account of a medical condition
he’d occasionally have to use crutches or a wheelchair
and the jocks especially enjoyed attacking him then
often kicking his crutches out from underneath him
or dumping him out of his wheelchair
As bad as his walks through the hallways were
gym class was most horrific for him
He’d always be picked last for teams
tripped up
spit on
and intentionally fouled roughly during games
After class, in the locker room
was where he got it the worst
One of the most menacing jocks
a 6’4, muscular linebacker everyone called “Mad Dog”
would administer the boy a variety of wedgies
such as the “Melvin”
which involved pulling
the boy’s tighty whitey’s up from the front
causing much pain to his genitals
or the “atomic wedgie”
where Mad Dog’d sneak up from behind
and hoist the waistband of the boy’s underwear
up and over the boy’s head
The most painful wedgie of all, though
was the “hanging wedgie”
in which the boy
would be hung by the waistband of his underwear
elevated from the ground
and sometimes twirled around in airborne circles
and once released
flung clear across the distance of the locker room
Every once in a while the jocks had contests
to see who could make the boy fly the farthest
via such maneuvers
The wedgie attacks
name calling
and hallway beatings turned increasingly violent
eventually reaching a crescendo one day after school
when a group of jocks ambushed the boy in the bathroom
while he was urinating
They seized him from behind
pushed his face into the piss filled urinal trough
pulled his pants down to his ankles
and forced a hard green banana up into his ass
Laughing madly
the jocks raped him brutally with the piece of produce
yelling such things as “you know you like it, faggot!”
among other taunts
Mad Dog even filmed the incident on his cell phone
joking about how he was going to put it on the internet
After sodomizing the boy for a minute or two
the jocks removed the banana from his bleeding anus
threw him to the cold tile floor
and one of the jocks
spontaneously plucked a live cockroach
off the graffiti covered bathroom wall
and shoved it into the boy’s mouth
held his jaw shut
and made him swallow it
which elicited
a boisterous round of applause from the group
The jocks then filed out the door
high fiving each other and still laughing hysterically
and the boy stumbled up to his feet
vomited into the urinal trough
pulled up his pants and limped home
where he showered and brushed his teeth several times
That night
the thoughts of revenge that’d swirled in his head for years
began to rapidly intensify
Stealing his dad’s guns
and carrying out a Columbine style attack
planting a car bomb
in Mad Dog’s
Confederate Flag painted monster pickup truck
hurling a Molotov cocktail
onto the field during a football game
poisoning the punch bowl at the prom
with liquid LSD or cyanide
all types of ideas crossed his mind…
But for now, he just sat back in his bean bag chair
unsheathed a hunting knife he kept under his bed
rolled up his left pant leg
revealing a large patch of scars
and slid the tip of the knife
about four inches down his upper left quad
drawing a small stream of dark red blood
which trickled slowly over his inner thigh
Watching the blood drip
pierced through his cocoon of learned numbness
like a million needles
His eyes then welled up
and he started to sob uncontrollably
He got up and locked his door
crawled into bed
yanked the covers over his head
That night he prayed for anything to happen
that’d prevent him from having to go to school the next day
A tornado
snowstorm
earthquake
terrorist attack
anything
He just didn’t want to see those faces anymore
he didn’t want to hear the laughter
He just wanted to stay in bed.
Eyes and heart brimming with grief over such tragic brutality. So important that this kind of terrifying abuse is spoken about and addressed for it flourishes with silence. No words to describe the rage and sadness one feels in the face of such heinous behaviour. Thank you writing this poem. I salute your bravery.
Teachers have a responsibility to not turn a blind eye to this sort of nonsense! People can be so thoughtless and cruel just to get a laugh or make up for their own hidden insecurities! Either way, it should not go on but, probably always will. Human nature is sickening at times. Thank you for opening my eyes even further.
you highlight a problem that often is ignored until its too late and the victim snaps and dishes out fatal punishment Who do we blame?