Tuesday, February 8, 2011

RESPECT, By Will S. Bunin

Special thanks to Will S. Bunin for allowing PACER to post this poem. When asked about his inspiration, Will shared the following:

This poem is stating that even if your bullied you can stand up to the bully, and never be bullied again. What inspired me to write this poem? I could say that it was the kind gesture of watching someone help another being bullied. I could say that it was me who saved another. I could even say that it was me who was saved by another, but all these things that I could say would be lies. They would be simple hopes that are not true. When I was younger, I was bullied. I was bullied for being weird, incompetent, and just plain different. I acted how I wanted to, and paid the price for it. This continued until I finally had enough of it, and stood up for myself. I wish I was able to say that someone stood up to the bully and helped me out, but this is not the case.

RESPECT
Will S. Bunin

You don’t know me
So don’t judge what you can't see
Don’t smudge me out
Don’t begrudge my Intel
Just don’t hold a grudge
Against my style
Of all black
Or hate the idea
of a keychain
on the front of my back

Don't belittle what's different
About this kid
Don’t whittle my soul
Down to its core
Because that’s what bullies are for
That’s what you 're doing to my life
So don’t just stab me in the back
With a rugged old knife
This is not some surgery
So stop being the jury
And stop your misery
Stop your condescending low heartedness
You gruesome crow

You might make fun of me
Or ask me to calm down,
But no!

I'm not going to calm down for one second
I'm going to simply stand
Tall and fight

I'm going to stand tall and fight you
And your mean ugly hand
Your cold moribund fingers that tremble
Your dastardly deeds that correspond to evil
You and your outright impurity,
your cold, sickly, disorienting, repulsiveness
That fills all with hatred hotter than bloods thick core

I'm going to fight you because I can
Because someone as ghostly as you
Someone who causes as much hate as you
Someone who is as unjust and relentlessly cold as you
Needs to be stopped

Who am I you ask

I am simply him
I am the one you bully
I am the one you torment
I am the one who needs help,
But does not get it
I am the one who looks toward a new horizon
A new place of freedom

I am me
It's just that simple
am the one who has had enough of your bad behavior
I am the one who is standing up to people like you
I am the one who WILL win against your soaring ways,
Your bitter travesties.
I am the one who shows respect to those who show me the same courtesy

You want respect, don’t you?
All people do

If you want respect so much, then show me the same behavior
If you want respect so much, then show him the same behavior
If you want respect so much, then show everyone that you deserve it

Don’t judge someone because they're weird
Don’t judge someone cause they're annoying
Don’t judge some because they're different
Just don’t judge

RESPECT.