Best Bystander Poems
As you sit in your car
All dressed in black.
You know,
It didn’t have to end like this
Now as you think back you remember
The faint white scars etched in her fair skin
And the timid smile that hid years of despair
You remember that time your friends saw her crying in the hall
You sat there and laughed as they tortured her
The times you saw her sitting alone at lunch
She looked up at you with pleading eyes
“Hey, can you help me,” they said.
You thought about it , but instead you pretended you didn’t see her
And you left her there, sad and alone
That pleading look now haunts you
It begged somebody, anybody for help
But why should you commit social suicide for her?
You just kept walking away, selfish
Now though, you think back to those boring assemblies
About bullying and what it could lead to
Why didn’t you just listen?!
Maybe you could have spoken up, or found her help
Its too late now though, as you walk up to her casket
To say your first and last words,
To a girl, whose real name
You never cared to learn
“I’m sorry…”
Courage is to stand up for another
On social media,
To ask the coward to delete
The mean
To not show the victim
For feelings might not crush
Or crucify her
If she is never told
Resist the urge to be cruel
Or mean
Little bullies are
Usually tormented
By big bullies
Unseen
Do not go along
Be an up-stander
Retain your integrity
It may never
Be revealed how
Many you
Will be
Saving
You
Owe it
To yourself
To be an up-stander
By-standers are often
The next target
Up-standers ask a bully to please stop.
But not in a bullying voice.
Understand?
Head nod.
Down-standers join the bully.
They call the victim names too
Scared they will be the next target if they do not.
Cowards.
By-standers stand by,
Trying to ignore what is happening, feeling badly later
Wishing they had been an up-stander.
So what do you want to be?
An Up-Stander, a Down-Stander or a By-Stander?
“I want to be a run-a-way-er,” he said, demonstrating.
On one daring day, when the bruising sun was yet to set
And unfold the opportunities of an anticipated and hopeful day.
A bystander sprouted out from her shell into the dew
Hardly aware of the blindfolds of reality
She set off; ready to feed her eyes what it loves the most, doom!
She is a racy schadenfreude.
Across the street, a mishap called her name
The voice she heeded with race of flashes
To the scene, straining to snap a view for her sight
Alas! She saw the fuss of commotion, and was marveled
She bragged to herself ‘’I’m always on time’’…
A metallic beast had kissed a monstrous millipede
Conveying explosive water, but had unturned and wet the soil.
People were engulfed in steams of smoke
Singing the song of pain and perturbing panic.
The sing-song travelled to her like the gong of a town-crier
The echo drew the bystander closer as she gasped in awe
Her frenzied soul almost ran amok in unpleasant excitement
Her eyes were fixed on her flutter, while ignoring the wet floor she toed.
Just then, a vestige of spark was wafted and veered towards her
In seconds of second, she too was swimming in stream of flame
She whirled out for help but echo ricocheted void
Of abyssal coma, as the day set, the sun smiled as she was bathed to ashes
Then other onlookers after observing the osmosis quickly grabbed her remains
And blew it to the waiting wind
The Man above the earth sniffed it and frowned
‘’Another wasted soul loitering in damnation’’, He muttered.
Then He cried rain down to cleanse others
But as it showers, they stood back gracing the sight
That holds their eyes- the bystanders!
Ricochet bullet,
a bullet with someone else's name written on it ...
It makes a 45-degree right turn off the concrete pavement,
and finds you instead
You just went to the corner gas station
to buy some potato chips and a loaf of bread
But now you're going to the morgue
with a bullet in your head
Death was waiting to embrace you that morning,
the minute you got out of bed
Newspapers the next day,
says you were an innocent bystander
An argument in the store,
spilled out into the parking lot
Just as you arrived, the shots rang out
Deadly gunplay took your life yesterday,
you never would've stepped out the house,
if you had known it was gonna end this way
Innocent bystander,
your life took a stage exit left
when that ricochet bullet took a right turn
Falling to the ground, taking your last breath,
you bemoaned your fate ...
picking the wrong time to be an out-of-town guest
Mr. Bystander why can't you
hear me scream.
Mr. Bystander why can't you see me suffering.
Mr. Bystander.
Oh Mr bystander
Dont ignore my agony.
Don't ignore my Pain.
Mr bystander.
Oh Mr bystander don't ignore the
corruption and victims of the world.
Mr. Bystander you are a witness.
A witness to the falsehood of the world.
You are a witness even if you close your eyes.
Mr. Bystander.
One day it will be your turn.
One day you will be the victim.
You will be on the receiving end.
It will be about you.
You will seek for help.
You Won't want to be ignored.
You will think you deserve to be noticed.
You will think your life matters.
So Mr bystander
Please don't ignore me.
My life matters.
they fall upon me, each bent on doing harm
I fight them, for what I know now, as my life
kicking, stomping, flailing, smashing
their fury only increased by the affront
of my fruitless attempts to obstruct them
this angry little mob, of angry little men
a voice rings out, a clarion in the dark
that briefly piques their bleak interest
shouting, calling, warning, admonishing
it falls weakly on their deafened ears
pausing just to raise derisive laughs
and their assurances to "keep it down"
awakening to a doctor's droning voice
drolly noting each fracture and contusion
defensive wound, defensive wound...
as he dictates the inventory of my defeat
all I can think of is that voice in the dark
demanding some "peace and quiet, damn it"
Surrounded by clowns
In a circus she's running
Wearing no make-up
You become the misplaced one
Flagged as a mere bystander
I remembered those times:
whether it was rain or shine,
the sounds of isolation and gatherings
of strangers walking by.
There has never been a day I do not wonder:
How I'd end up here in the first place?
How they came to be?
What all of it meant?
The interaction of people:
The laughters, the cries -
Have never struck me deep-
ly inside enough, I suppose.
Maybe I am a narcissist?
Maybe I don't really care?
I do feel a strange numbing -
And that I bear.
Form:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, and perhaps so are you
But you admire another
And I am stuck a bystander
As you grow closer
Silent
Why can't you see?
I've given up hope
You might never like me
I taste the flowers on the floor,
smashed beneath your boot, and
choke
on their heady perfume,
finding it difficult to inhale
broken petals.
They are a puddle of
crushed velvet,
soft
like the stillness after you
breathe away
the steadiness of your spine
and allow your shoulders to curl
inward.
You don’t let me touch
the wisteria
still tangled in your hair,
so I watch it weep.
Violet tears drift to the ground,
weightless in their untethered freedom,
and stain our floors.
I drown as I try to
swallow their gravity
before
their perfume fades.
I am thankful for my mortality,
For if I were immortal, I would not cherish life.
I say this, yet my actions suggest otherwise.
6,211 days on this earth—
And I must have only seen a hundred sunsets.
How many more will I miss?
149,064 hours, all taken for granted.
What upsets me most is this:
I have done nothing.
536,630,400 seconds of existence,
And I have nothing to show for it.
You would think my struggles on this earth
Would have amounted to something.
But no—I have nothing.
How dare I sit idly by as the world shifts around me?
I always considered myself a man of action,
Yet it seems my ignorance has blinded me.
All this time, I was nothing but a bystander.
innocent bystander
wears the stain of guilt
a blind eye
turning away
shames blamelessness
my Soul begets My heart
my Heart begets My mind
my Mind begets My consciousness
my Consciousness begets My awareness
my Awareness begets My being
my Being begets My energy
my Energy infuses My infinity
my Infinity inf ,...,..,.,