Soul filled with ignorance and hate
Lashing out at specific targets
Dismissed: boys being boys
Generating another cycle
Silently endured
Harmed.
Healing
Speaking out
Breaking the circle
Starting with children's parents
Breaking down the cultural differences
Filling children with knowledge and compassion.
Last line of defense against abusers
In dealing with young children
Age appropriate punishment response
Using outright expulsion
No one
Wins.
Therisa © 2019
Author's note: As many people know, I have experienced bullying/abusive behaviour, for most of my life, as reflected in my poetry. This may shock some people, but I have trouble applying zero tolerance policy to children, who are strongly influenced by their parents' attitudes, (religious beliefs) and behaviour. I think that society has swing too far, in the other direction, in the punishing of these abusive kids. Who, in many cases, are the victims of abuse/bullying, themselves. How we judge and punish these children, must be flexible and fitting to the crime committed. One size fit all, only creates a harmful environment that these zero tolerance policies are trying to eliminate. Local board policy should act, as a guideline for state/provincial/territorial legislation, in handle these types of crime of power.
This experimental poetic form, I am thinking of calling it, "roller coaster". It breaks down, in the following stanzas:
1st stanza: 6 words/5 words/4 words/3 words/2 words/1 word
2nd stanza: 1 word/2 words/3 words/4 words/5 words/6 words
3rd stanza: 6 words/5 words/4 words/3 words/2 words/1 word
Three stanzas for a total of 63 words.
Written for Poets United's midweek motif, using the word prompt of: zero tolerance.