A term that everyone around the world has become very aware of is bullying. There are so many disappointing aspects of this personality trait and the more it happens the more disappointing it becomes. Unfortunately, students report being bullied as young as kindergarten for things that they don't even understand and sometimes things that they have no control over like their race or socioeconomic status. The biggest misstep is that the adults in the room are not always doing everything that they can to support students who are being bullied, address and educate students who are the bullies, as well as creating a safety net for all students in all aspects of their young lives. This collection deals with anti-bullying. In Burnt Cake we use the metaphor of a burnt cake to connect with a teenager that is experiencing bullying and can't quite find the words to ask their parents for help. In Stand Up we experience the honest truth about what we are not seeing and are not addressing in the presence of this bullying culture. In When I Have a Kid, we hear someone express all of the things that they are and are not going to do in an effort to support their child. Because at the end of the day supporting children is important because at some point, they will grow up to be the adults that lead our world. We must make anti bullying a priority to keep this generation safe as well as the next.
Anti- Bullying: Burnt Cake, Stand Up, When I Have a Kid
Difficult to put into words
Find the words
Battle to combine the letters
To build the words that accurately express how
A bully is created.
It is the deep sea rising
Then making its way to the surface
Like a horror movie we watch all of the
People on the beach run for their lives because
They see it coming
No matter how they shake and move they
Just can’t avoid it
They see this terrible thing coming
Knowing there is nothing you can do
helplessness
It is baking a cake on a Sunday morning
Like the child everything looks okay
Oven on
Directions read
All of the ingredients in
And mix
The combination is right on point
One swift swirl of your finger around the bowl of and into the oven
But then all of these different things
Take over
The mix was off
The cake didn’t rise
Over cooked
Burnt
Kitchen a mess
Cake wasted
No one wants a disgusting burnt cake
And you turn to see your child standing in the corner of the kitchen
Watching.
In their mind they’re thinking
- I’m the cake mom
- No one wants me
- All the stuff that’s mixed up in my head
- I can’t get out of this fire I feel every day when I have to go to school
- I’d rather be thrown in the trash
- Maybe someone else will get their wrath on that day
- Take me out with trash
- In the container sitting on the end of the driveway
- At least I know I have a place to go
- Home might look different, but I’d be comfortable
- I’d able to relax