Neighborhood Bully


Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,

His enemies say he's on their land.

They got him outnumbered about a million to one,

He's got no place to escape to, no place to run.

He's the neighborhood bully.



The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,

He's criticized and condemned for just being alive.

He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,

He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.

He's the neighborhood bully.



The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,

He's wandered the earth an exiled man.

Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,

He's always on trial for just being born.

He's the neighborhood bully.



Well, he knocked out a lynchmob, he was criticized,

Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.

Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad,

The bombs were meant for him.

He was supposed to feel bad.

He's the neighborhood bully.



Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim

That he'll live by the rules the world makes for him,

'cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back

And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.

He's the neighborhood bully.



He got no allies to really speak of.

What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.

He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied

But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.

He's the neighborhood bully.



Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,

They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.

Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.

To hurt one they would weep.

They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep

He's the neighborhood bully.



Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,

Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.

He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,

In bed with nobody, under no one's command.

He's the neighborhood bully.



Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,

No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.

He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,

Took sickness and disease and turned it into health.

He's the neighborhood bully.



What's anybody indebted to him for?

Nothin', they say.

He just likes to cause war.

Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,

They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.

He's the neighborhood bully.



What has he done to wear so many scars?

Does he change the course of rivers?

Does he pollute the moon and stars?

Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,

Running out the clock, time standing still,

Neighborhood bully.



~Bob Dylan~



I know the time grows late, and everyone has shared

from their heartsong about bullying today...but I wanted

to share a few words too. WE all have been the recipient

of harsh and sometimes hateful words by others...

sometimes it was to the extreme and over and over again

by the same person or persons and those words never left

our psyche...when I ran across this poem I knew I had to

post it, as it comes at bullying from a whole other element

and before I was finished typing it, I found my heart doing

something...going out to the bully! The people who do

these unkind things are to be pitied, prayed for, and like

every other person on Mother Earth, helped if we are able

to give that help. As the human paradigm shifts to a

higher awareness now, for peaceful resolution and a greater

Higher Good for All, we should be ever more increasingly

aware that these bullies more than not, house deep within

them the scars of being bullied...scars run deep, as do the

words and abuse, be it physical or verbal, it doesn't matter

which end of the spectrum you are on...it hurts at both ends.

You can usually see the blankness in the eyes, or the

confusion, or the internal pain...we all bleed when we are cut,

be it from the knife or from deed. So for me this night, I will

remember those times when I was cut to the core...the times

when I said things in anger that may have hurt someone else,

as well as pray for those who bullied me.



I hope you join me in praying for these lost souls...pray they

will find a way to come back into their heart's song?



Blessing You in Your Dreamtime!