Untitled
By Bill McGrath, Presentation College, Carlow
Retard! Spastic Fuck!
So you call all the names
You learned in the schoolyard
But you don’t know a thing.
You aren’t able to hide how scared you are
And yet you chase them because of what they are.
You don’t know a thing.
There’s a million universes behind those eyes.
You don’t see past what’s on the surface.
You are afraid you’ll see yourself.
Gays
By Eoghan Carabini, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Spat on. Beaten up. Called insulting names.
Homophobia.
If you are afraid of gays how come you are not afraid of everyone else?
How Should Things Be?
By Louise Doyle, Lucan Community College, Dublin
I would like to be treated equal
Because I know I’m not,
I would like people to stop saying
And start doing.
Everyone should be heard.
People should respect you for who you are.
I want prejudice to stop
Because it happens every day.
I want my friend to be looked on
As a person
And not as Chinese.
I want people to live.
Different
By Stacy Leyland, St. Mary’s, Haddington Rd, Dublin
I saw her walk up
Slow and scared.
She looked so different,
So afraid.
She hoped to talk
To somebody there,
To talk to someone
Who’d show her care
A wounded crow in a flock of doves
Waiting for someone to show her love.
Standing there all alone,
Listening to them as they point and moan.
Her eyes fill up and overflow
No hope of sympathy
On that rough road.
Yet closed in darkness, another place
Where reckless laughter, and warm embrace
Enfold her gently whispering hope
A frail jet bird who knows she’ll cope.
Homeless
By Joshua Boland, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Living rough and alone in the cold
Seen as scum by common folk
No food, shelter or friends
Save the company of rats and vermin
A blind eye turned to their plight
Of depression neglect and poverty.
Still they can read up on current events
All depicted on their beds of paper.
Begging on streets for a small sum
Begging for pity just like a dog.
Forced to survive like animals.
Alone
By Aidan McGrath, Presentation College, Carlow
He walks alone to school,
Shunned because he’s different,
Why, he does not know
Differences
By John O’ Brien, Garbally College
In every school there are differences
Some of us are academic
Some of us are sporty
Some of us are seniors
Some of us are juniors
These are differences that make us unique
These are differences that should be respected.
Robert Henry, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Discriminations
Intimidation
Black man walking down the street
Doing nothing wrong
Fat white man in taxi
Lowers the window pulls in alongside
Shouts abuse at him. Intimidates him.
Then drives away.
Intimidation for the crime of coloured skin.
Nobody notices or at least they pretend not to.
Mentally Ill
People snigger and stare
Look down their noses.
Call them names
Behind their backs
Or even to their faces.
They are humans too.
Learning Disabilities
My brother – dyslexic
Disruptive in class
Because he didn’t understand anything.
Teachers refused to believe
He had learning difficulties
Because he wasn’t stupid
And could do lots of things really well,
They thought he was just
Looking for attention.
So he had to be taken out of school
And home-schooled
Different
Ben McHugh, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Feel powerless
Tiny in the world
Different from the majority,
Life but a burden
Hard to speak up
Criticism everywhere
Alive but never living
Hell is hard to bear
The reckoning judgement
Silent scream
One note without a sound
Whisperings
By Meghan O’Doherty, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Whisperings behind my back
Why am I the one you attack
What did I do
When did I do it
I didn’t mean to
I’m sorry
Please leave me alone
The names they hurt
Bullying Me
By Laura Grace, Coláiste Mhuire, Johnstown, Kilkenny
Why do people bully me,
We were all born equal and free,
Why do people call me names,
When all I want is to join their games.
I’m not that kind of person to fight,
I can’t even go outside at night,
Some people put me through hell,
When I go home I tell my mother I fell.
With cut elbows and knees,
Black eyes and bruised thighs,
I hate waking up the next day,
To face the same thing.
Why do people bully me.
Our World Today
By John O’ Brien, Garbally College
People are judged by their dress
People are judged by their size
People are judged by their colour
People are judged by their any damn thing at all
We live in a terrible world
One which is unfair and racist.
Poor People
By Christina Keogh, Lucan Community College, Dublin
An old man in town begging,
Policeman tells him to move off
Man says he has no money
And nowhere to go
Policeman says he doesn’t care.
People stop and watch
Nobody says anything,
The man picks up his stuff
Walks away mumbling,
People whisper to each other
About how it isn’t fair,
But then they leave
And go on with their shopping.
Judging by Looks
By Darren McCarthy, Coláiste Mhuire, Johnstown, Kilkenny
You wake up in the morning
You look at yourself and say
oh my god, what’s wrong with me
What’s wrong with me today?
You eat your breakfast and think to yourself
What’s going to happen today?
Will all us teens be fighting again
Or what are they going to say.
Finishing breakfast, I put on my jacket
Open my front door,
When all I hear are screaming and sneers
And see lots of anger and tears.
At the top of my voice I shout out STOP!
What is the point of this?
One girl stands up and says to me
We are too pretty for ye.
I reassured us
By telling all
It’s not how you look on the outside
It’s what’s inside that counts.
Bullying
By Alison Boston, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Alone in the dark
You sit and think
Of what will come next
Who will you have to defeat
Everyone outside your own little world
Pretends to understand
They all tell you it’ll be better
And that one day the battles will stop
What have you done wrong
To be treated this way?
It’s the question you ask yourself every day
Over and over again
You wish they’d just put an end to it all
And accept you the way you are
Because nothing you try to do
Makes it better anyway
People Who Look Different
By Grace Carey, Lucan Community College, Dublin
Limping slowly down the road
Watching shadows beside me limping too.
Sniggering and laughing
Finding humour out of my despair.
When You Felt You Were an Outsider
By Kate Newmann and students from Sligo Grammar
When my sister was born, everything was different. All the attention was on her.
Being told one of my family has fallen ill.
The bitter loneliness of isolation – how cold a single word becomes.
My sister leaving for America.
She had just died. I walked into the room and it felt cold and empty. I had already missed her presence.
When I came to Secondary School first, I felt left out.
I moved to a new Primary School when I was ten. I felt like I didn’t belong there.
The game of soccer – good players first – then friends – four left up against the wall. And I was last.
Boarding School – left behind – they have a past here. No chance to breathe, to understand my own feelings.
Like an outsider, on holiday, in youth club, I was the only English-speaking youth in the club, and felt very alone in this foreign country.
The time I felt like an outsider was when I was younger, and the only Catholic in the area.
No one passes the ball. No one talks. In the cold West of Ireland. Standing there. The middle of the playground. The only Protestant in a little Nationalist school.
When I was about five years old and my family changed towns and I didn’t have any friends.
In my free time sometimes, I feel sad and very lonely, especially when I came to Ireland.
I have become more used to being alone.
A World of Difference
By Jasmin Krapp, Mullingar Community College
I’m a dog
You’re a cat
I’m different
You’re a cat
You talk behind my back
With a language I can’t understand
That makes you a snake
I’m a dog
You’re a snake
I’m proud to be different.
Teachers
By Deirdre Manton, Coláiste Mhuire, Johnstown, Kilkenny
Why do we have to go to school?
And follow the teacher’s rules
They say the same thing every day
Diaries, copies, pencil case.
I’d love to say, get out of my face.
What’s this thing about detention?
Don’t go there I don’t want to mention
We get homework every day
All I want to do is go out and play
Teachers think they know it all
Students have a life after all
People who go to school
Shouldn’t act the fool
People who get an education,
Should be glad they can get to graduation.
Prejudice
By Colum Kelly, Garbally College
Human rights
Untouchable
Or so they say
So why, I ask,
The prejudice game
Have so many got to play?
Human rights
A myth
Or so they say
So why I ask
The non-prejudice game
Have so many got to play?
We can’t all be right…
…And justice for all.
