Bullies

With the eye in the back of his head

he sees them coming —

 

eight-year-old breakers,

baby-hard, baby-soft.

 

Their elegant space-machine

could swallow him,

 

drown him once and for all

in a dish of air.

 

They are the masters —

skills bred in the bone.

 

He freezes

as they expect

 

though a voice inside him squeaks

I . ..Words cut his tongue,

 

weigh in his mind

like a bruise.

Katherine Gallagher

Published in Them & Us, Bodley Head, 1993

 Katherine Says: The poetry prompt “HELP” reminded me of occasions in schools and elsewhere when I’ve come up against bullying.