The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

 Kings of the Playground

All to get the Bully - who hid in a steel-clad cupboard -
The Bully Bashers stormed the trembling school.
They bullied the Bully’s kit, his grubby blazer,
His sports-bag, his bully-beef flavour crisps.

They bullied the kids with the bruises
That showed the Bully’s shoe-print.
They bullied the gerbils he’d teased, they bullied every computer
He’d slimed with his bully virus.

They bullied the prefects and teachers
-The nice ones first, then the bullies.
The kids who had conduct stars, the kids in detention, even
The football team they bullied yelling "Ya bullying cunts, ya."

They bullied the books, though the Bully didn’t like books:
They bullied the white boards and black-boards,
They bullied the wall-charts, the registers, the sick-notes,
The pass-notes. They bullied the two times table.

Then they thundered out and bullied the empty playground,
They bullied the big round sky that covered the playground,
They bullied the rain, the bushes, the used needles,
The trembling waiting parents, the tiny brothers and sisters.

Bully TV was launched. There was only one programme
’How we Bashed the Bully.’ Anyone who switched off
Was sentenced to 25 years community-bullying.
The Bully-Bashers relaxed. Gave themselves medals. Flew home.

The Bully listened a while, and grinned in the dark cupboard.
Then he combed his hair and opened the door wide.
He sauntered through the wrecked assembly hall.
Scared faces turned. Eyes that remembered his bruises

Clouded, younger eyes got wide and shiny.
Suddenly someone shouted, ’Look, the Bully!
Them liars didn’t get him! Three cheers for our Bully!’
Then everyone yelled and stamped: ’Three cheers for old Bully!’

Old Bully mounted the stage. How tall he was,
What a lovely speech he made. The big boys lifted him high
And they all stormed into the trembling streets, yelling
’Make way for Old Bully, ya cunts!’ And the people did. 

Carol Drobysheva is a pseudonym for Carol Rumens.

Since 1996, Carol has taught Creative Writing at Queens’ University, Belfast, and has published extensively. Eleven collections of her poetry have been published, with ’Holding Pattern’ (Blackstaff 1999) short-listed for a Belfast City Arts Award. ’The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland since 1945’ also contained some of her work. A writer of literary journalism Carol has also translated some work by Russian poets Pushkin and Yevgeny Rein.