I don’t suppose
I have ever been the one
To suffer the bully,
But to deny him face to face.

Yet to this day,
I meet so many bullies
Who have learned from experience
Not to expect any
Efficacious pushback.

And I can’t help but to wonder
Whether our culture
Actually deserves the menace
When we refuse both
The courage and wisdom alike
To put it in its place.

The bully who must be stopped
With a bullet when he is thirty
Might have been reformed
With a bloody nose at twelve,
A firm rebuke at seven,
Or a fine example at three.