WHO ARE YOU?

Who are you in this black and white picture?

Who are You in this Black and White Picture?

Smiling to the Camera and Looking at Me,

With Ice Cream on Your Face and a Grazed Knee.

What are You Thinking as this Little Boy?

At Two Years Old Playing with Your Favourite Toy.

Who are You on this Cine Film?

Running Towards Me with a Smile and a Grin.

Playing Football in the Garden and Trying to Win,

Then You See Your Scary Neighbour,

So You Run Back In.

Now I have Moved to Pastures New,

At the Age of Five I went to Infants School.

I’m Hoping to Make New Friends for Me,

As its Hard for a Little Boy,

With Another Grazed Knee.

A Few Years have Passed, I’m in Junior School,

I’ve Made New Friends and I feel Pretty Cool.

But things Start to Change when I Am There,

This Skinny Little Kid with his Natural Blond Hair.

My Friends Start to Desert Me and I’m on My Own Again,

As I Walk Around the Playground,

Thinking What is Going on?

In My Tiny Brain.

I Decided the Way to Let off Steam,

Is to Join the School Football Team.

As We start to Play Game after Game,

I Start to Make New Friends and I’m Happy Again.

Life is Beginning to Look Good for Me,

And Our Neighbours become Very Friendly.

One Even Worked in the Merchant Navy,

Who Later became Like a Hero to Me.

As Time Moved On and The Years Went By,

My Voice was Changing and I was Still the Same Size.

And Even though I was a Shy Little Boy,

I was Happy and Content Playing On with My Toys.

I had My First Crush, Sarah Denton was Her Name,

I was Going to ask Her Out?....But then the Bombshell Came.

The Year was 1977, and No…We were Moving Again.

My Heart Sunk and My Eyes Cried Tears,

And now I Start Thinking of All My Fears.

Sarah Gave a Photo to Me,

As I Am Sent Packing to a Place Called Lydney.

And now I Am Off to Senior School,

With No Friends Again I’m not Feeling So Cool.

With No School Uniform on My First Day,

I Am Beginning to go into Myself,

And Slowly Lose My Way.

Joining My New Class they were Looking at Me,

This Wafe of a Boy Sounding Like a Cockney.

Things Start to Change now I’m Growing Up,

With a Different Accent and a Basin Haircut.

The Name Calling came Then the Bullying Started,

It Just made Me feel so Down Hearted.

I Tried Again to Let off Steam,

But this Time The School, Never had a Football Team.

Just a Funny Shaped Ball they call a Sport,

Running Away Making sure You Don’t get Caught.

The Bullying and The Name Calling Never Really Stopped,

And My Confidence with People was Very Much Knocked.

Spending Time in My Bedroom,

And Lying School was Ok,

Crying Secret Tears Hoping It Would All Go Away.

Don’t get Me Wrong, I Made Friends but Only just a Few,

Before I Left WhiteCross School in 1982.

I Had a Crush on a Girl once again, Nicola was Her Name,

I Even Asked Her Out on a Date, But that Never Really Came.

Who are You on this Video Camera?

I can Hear Your Voice Talking and Your Laughter.

But Please can You Stop Filming Me,

Because I Don’t Like to Look at Myself,

And I Feel That I Am Ugly.

This is a Poem About When I Was A Kid,

About Growing Up and the Things that I Did.

But Maybe Later I Will Tell You More About Me,

This Skinny Little Boy Sounding Like A Cockney.

A STATEMENT!!

Bullying does NOT belong in Our Society,

With All this Modern Technology.

With Social Media and Mobile Phones that We Have,

It can Destroy a Person and End A Life, Quite Bad.

Don’t Keep things to Yourself Hoping it will All Go Away,

Talk to Someone and Be Strong, Say what You Want to Say,

And You will get Through this Whatever it Takes.

Making Your Life Much Better and Making it GREAT!!

© Gary Sydney Hankins…13/05/2020