Blade Embrace: A Poem

Skin of blades

Velveted by day

Sheathed under layers

Of false smiles

And soft words.

But as night falls

Hinge outward

Extending scythes

Of umbrage

Razor-sharp

Piercing embrace.

A teacher, Laurie Woodward is the author of several novels including Forest Secrets, and the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles. She also cowrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes her novels on the Central Coast of California.

What Is Your Bullying Story?

Recently, I shared how bullying affected me. How by fourteen its unrelenting cruelty made a forever sleep look like the only solution.

I know that many of you have suffered just as much or more and want to provide a forum to share your stories. If you were taunted, teased, pushed, called names, and lived in the shadows, please share.

Who knows, one of your stories just might help someone else feel a little less alone.

Let’s change these statistics.

According to the National Education Association, PACER Center, and StopBullying.gov:

• 1 in 7 students in grades K – 12 are either a bully or have been a victim of bullying.
• An estimated 160,000 U.S. children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students.
• 83% of girls and 79% of boys report experiencing harassment.
• Six out of 10 teenagers say they witness bullying in school once a day.
• 35% of kids have been threatened online.
• Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBTQ youth report being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
• 57% of boys and 43% of girls reported being bullied because of religious or cultural differences.
• Bullies often go on to perpetrate violence later in life: 40% of boys identified as bullies in grades 6 through 9 had three or more arrests by age 30.
• One out of every 10 students who drop out of school does so because of repeated incidents of bullying.
• 75% of shooting incidents at schools have been linked to bullying and harassment.
• 64% of children who were bullied did not report it.
• Nearly 70% of students think schools respond poorly to bullying.
• When bystanders intervene, bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time.

The Darkness: What Bullying Did to Me

If I took the knife and cut into the veins
Would blood or tar spew forth?
If I wrapped the noose around my neck
Would breath or sulfuric acid rasp?
If I swallowed one, then two and a hundred
Would dreams or nightmares fill eternity?

These were the sorts of thoughts I had all through my teens.

For some, the teen-aged years are a carefree time of friends, sports, and parties. Popular with clear skin and long shining hair, they throw their heads back in laughter as they revel in the wonder of youth.

I was not one of them.

Not even close. I was the shy, nervous kid watching from the shadows hoping to God I remained invisible. Because some of those popular kids reveled in more than youth. They fed on fear, living to torment me.

Every day it was the same. “Dog. You are so ugly you make me want to vomit. Freak.”

And soon I believed every word. Until times alone were just a replaying of every word. I was an ugly dog, unworthy of love or friendship. Why even keep living if all I felt was pain?

My suicidal ideations increased. By the time I was fourteen I was ready to steal my mother’s sleeping pills.

I remember holding the bottle in my hand imagining release from the torture. Soon I’d escape.

I took a handful, not caring what happened next, and went to the movies. Sitting alone in the dark theater I drifted to sleep.

When the lights came back up, I was alone, and groggy. I fumbled for my purse and began the long trudge home.

I survived this incident, eventually finding my niche in college. But all too many teens don’t. They never get to learn that beyond the cruel words and pain there is life waiting.

I’d like to invite others to share their stories. Maybe, if we share what life is like in the shadows, a few kids will step out from them.

Prunes and Pancakes: A Poem

With prunes and pancakes

She begins her day

Devouring one

And savoring the other

With fortified intestines

And tongue tickling

She feasts on theses morsels

A giggling gastronome

Consuming the dawn

(Photo of Karen Frank by David Stroup)