This poem was inspired by Shane K. and I may enter the poetry slam comment if I should

As a child

You are not taught to fight

You are taught to play and make friends

Friends you will keep until they betray you once you get older

It doesn't always happen this way

Some of us keep our friends for longer

But it all ends in tragedy

Like I said

You were never taught to fight

Once you got into school you were taught words and spelling, numbers and addition along with subtraction

No one ever taught you to fight off the bullies

Once you hit third grade you were taught cursive

For me you were starting to like guys

Up to fifth grade you learned a various number of things

Now people are starting to date

But they are also pointing

And laughing

Laughing at the people like me

The people who didn't understand math as well

Laughing at the ones who weren't as strong as the others

Laughing at the ones who couldn't pronounce words correctly

Taunting us with something we don't have

Sixth grade most of us are hitting puberty

But in our heads we are still children

So they keep laughing

They keep pointing

They still stab us in the gut with their sharp words

Slashing us at the swings during recess because they weren't gonna play around

Ripping us to shreds over our faults that we tried so hard to fix

Staying after class just to get the right answer

Repeating the words over again

Not stopping to get a drink because you want to prove to them that you can do it

But we couldn't do it

Feeling so low to the ground that you hoped to sink through

And disappear

7th grade you are better

But they still hurt you

The scars haven't been revealed because you are afraid of the answer

You are afraid of what they might say

You don't blame them though

You blame yourself

But they were wrong

Can't you see that?

They were wrong about you

Accept that you are a slow runner

Bad at pronunciation

Or can't understand math

You may not be perfect

But you aren't broken

That's gotta count for something