…a ‘No Kings Day’ reflection…
This song of the schoolyard bully is really very sad
He earned lots of infamy by simply being bad
He’d push his way through other kids, sneer at them as he’d pass
But no one had the guts to cross this big pain in the ass
With impunity he’d needle kids and throw his weight around
Trip up the unsuspecting and laugh when they hit the ground
He always drove the fastest car and clutched the prettiest girl
Brag about his conquests after every single whirl
He ridiculed the exchange kid, at school for just one year
We’d always hoped that foreign kid would knock him on his rear.
And there-in lay the problem with which we’d not contend
We’d looked for someone else to stand, our honor to defend
The fact is really simple as has always been the case
To confront to a vile bully one must meet him face-to-face
But that simple tenet is oft tossed out due to angst and fear
Easier is always: “Step aside, make his path clear”
So because we all allowed it, junior tyrant had his way
No one displayed the courage to stand up to his sway.
On graduation evening there were many in the crowd
And I and many classmates received accolades aloud
But when the bully crossed the stage, the cheering it did stop
It typified the adage about hearing a pin drop
He slunk off in the darkness, no one else to push around
Until I’m sure, he stumbled on the new group that he found.
Fifty years have come and gone as quickly as a flash
Our class did meet and reconvene, our history to rehash
The bully did not make our fest, but he didn’t give a fig
In the interceding years, it seems, he’d found a better gig.
To the horror of his classmates, he’d became our President
Ensconced inside the White House where he wouldn’t pay the rent
His bully-ness did not subside, in fact it grew and grew
And though he was our President, he was still the creep we knew
He pushed right through our statecraft norms said he was much smarter
Than those who’d paved the road to peace with treaty and with charter
He took to subjugating folks with skin of different color
And deftly used the tools he had to divide each from one another
He gloried running roughshod over laws from sea to sea
And truthfulness and righteousness and basic decency
Surrounded by like-minded folks or those with none at all
He pushed our hallowed nation near a precipice to fall.
But time does what time always does and soon his days were through
We looked at one another not quite knowing what to do.
A Presidential passage is not a thing to cheer
But somehow this was different, relief exhaled far and near
A few of us decided we should go attend the wake
We’d do it out of honor for our alma mater’s sake.
The chapel was but empty as we peeked inside the door
Footsteps of fellow mourners didn’t scratch across the floor
The crypt to which they rolled his mass was deep and dark and cold
And soon he’d be forgotten like a story never told.
‘Twas sad indeed but sadder still is this dogged phrase complete
If his legacy stays unshared, damned history will repeat.
Let’s not forget the tragic life that brought such pain and pall
And redouble fearless efforts to encourage good for all.
Looking back, by backing down when he was just a kid
We underwrote the awful things he ultimately did
If one of us had glared him down then picked him up with song
Perhaps he’d have found the beauty in simply trying to belong.
Our nation thrives on good will and our care for one another
In joining hands with those disdained – embracing like a brother
So hold with your friends those needing love, the sad misunderstood
For only in so doing will this land be truly good.
© 2025
Church of the Open Road Press
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