Victim

To scared to cry,
The victim stands and shakes.
The bully bows
Before his adoring crowd.

Baying, mocking
They scream for blood.
In cowardly anonymity
They smirk at the sacrificial lamb.

The blows may pain,
But far worse still;
A shattered soul within
Suffers in lonely torment.
Silently pleading for an end.

A warder stalks toward the crowd
And, suddenly transformed.
The bully soothes and cradles
The trembling wreck.

The guardian glides away
And with a hissing threat
The bully sets the time
When all begins again.

Graham Fewell