#155, Mimic

When I was a kid I used to think that pork chops and karate chops were the same thing. I thought they were both pork chops. And because my grandmother thought it was cute and because they were my favorite, she let me keep doing it.

Not really a big deal.

One day, before I realized fat kids are not designed to climb trees, I fell out of a tree and bruised the right side of my body. I didn’t want to tell my grandmother about it because I was afraid I’d get in trouble for playing somewhere that I shouldn’t have been.

A few days later the gym teacher noticed the bruise and I got sent to the principal’s office. From there I was sent to another small room with a really nice lady who asked me all kinds of questions about my life at home. I saw no reason to lie. As far as I was concerned, life was pretty good. I told her, “Whenever I’m sad, my grandmother gives me karate chops."

This led to a full scale investigation and I was removed from the house for three days until they finally decided to ask how I got the bruises. News of this silly little story quickly spread through the school and I earned my first nickname—Pork Chop. To this day, I hate pork chops.

Shane Koyczan is a Canadian spoken word poet and author. He is particularly known for his work, To This Day, an anti-bullying poem that was turned into an animated short. He notes,

My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways. I wrote “To This Day”, a spoken word poem, to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual.

To complete this Journal response,

Watch To This Day.
Re-write the excerpt of the poem. Use the first word of the given lines exactly as they are written. Then write the rest in your own words.

i'm not the only kid
who...
surrounded by people who used to say
that...
as...
hurt...
and...
so...
would...
that...
that...
to...
was...
in...
so broken heart strings bled the blues
as...
so...
don’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bone
that...
is...
that...