previous part here: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/07/17/unrooted-unraveled-unbound/
all parts here: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/
***
Bully
is a ridiculous word.
It sounds too tame.
Bully.
You practically have to smile to say it.
Bow.
Lee. (smile for me!)
Just listen for a minute;
bully,
bow, leed,
bow, lead us
to a magic land.
Bowl, eat.
Bull, lean.
Bully, baby,
boring, pulley,
sully, gulley,
fully roly-poly.
Loly loly lollipop,
my bully’s a lovely
gnolly skully.
Maybe its
ridiculous sound
in a bramble of sounds
is why
the adults
don’t believe
the bully’s that bad:
it’s an advertisement problem.
It’s a toddler calling the cute widdel kitty-cat
a meany.
It’s a puppy dog with an owie,
it’s a bouncy bally feeling sleepy–
my bully
teased little ol’ me
and hurt my feelings,
help me!
Maybe
Coach Purturbelly
would’ve listened
when I finally located the
portalball gym
and told her
my classmates were bullying me
if I instead said
the people sitting around me
were making my working conditions awful
and I needed to relocate
or bring them to justice,
maybe I should’ve called them
stalkers,
or wrecking bombs,
maybe I should’ve called them
ego killers,
grand arbiters of pain,
masochists in my suffering.
Maybe I should’ve painted them
as villains with pure evil intents
and I a hero in need of allies–
but then,
Coach Purturbelly
and the teachers I went up to after class
probably would’ve told me
I had my head in the clouds
and it wasn’t as bad
as I was making it out to be with my
fancy words,
so maybe “bully”
isn’t the problem,
just the widdel teachies
who need to put on their careful-listening ears
and pay attention
to the wesson.
***
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Jordyn Saelor 