Poem, Quadrille

Like Spitting Into The Wind

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

De Jackson, aka WhimsyGizmo at dVerse Poet’s Pub
has asked us to write Poems of Place for Quadrille #201.
This is my submission.

That time I found
myself
in the principal’s office
because
I
screamed
at
the teacher
who tried to put
his hand
up
my
shirt,
then
being assaulted
again
at home
by
my
mother
who accused me
of
“asking for it”.

Neither
place
felt
safe.

NAR©2024
44 Words

Quadrille #201: Poems of Place

This is “Education – Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” by Pink Floyd

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

60 thoughts on “Like Spitting Into The Wind”

  8. Pingback: Re-blog: Like Spitting Into The Wind – The Bee Writes…

    1. Liz, I have zero tolerance for this shit and more people need to take the same stand or it will continue to grow. It’s alarming to me how deaf, dumb and blind people can be when it comes to abuse. This is not something that can be handled with a ‘time out’. The only way it’s going to end is to stop the abusers in their tracks. I know my opinion is not a popular one but that’s tough. I feel as you do. Fuck them!

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    1. You think so, Glyn? I think the situation has gotten worse! People tiptoe around, afraid to open their mouths, afraid to offend. At least that’s the way it is here in The States. We have become a nation of snow flakes and it makes me very angry.

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  12. Well, you went right for the gut on this one!

    Nothing worse than when a parent doesn’t believe their child or feels they deserved the ill-begotten punishment. I don’t know which one makes me angrier!

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      1. Glad to know it wasn’t you, but the anger definitely belongs to you, and you’ve stirred anger in others, too – good on you!! Also, what a great job you did stepping into the shoes of your character. I have a hard time writing poetry that isn’t from my lived experience. You are inspiring me to try again.

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        1. Now you are really stroking my ego, Kim! I do not think of myself as a poet at all; in fact, I didn’t get into writing seriously until 2017 and it was strictly short stories. I’m very new to poetry writing and I’m shell-shocked by the great number of styles of poetry. I’m always up for a challenge and I’m having fun, so the old adage about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks definitely does not apply here!

          Very nice to know I can still inspire someone!

          Thanks for a lovely comment.

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          Reply

    1. Good question! Obviously it’s up to parents to raise their children in a healthy environment and to protect them from danger, not take the side of the abuser. These are the parents whose kids leave home and want nothing to do with them and the parents wonder why.

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    1. It’s probably one the worst things for a kid to feel totally abandoned by both their teachers and parents, to get no support and feel like there’s no safe place for them to go. I grew up in a time when the teachers were always right and if I did something wrong in school, I’d get punished again at home. But I know if something like this happened, my parents would make that teacher’s head roll. Obviously the mother in my poem was victimized at some point and is passing those same worthless feelings on to her daughter.

      Thanks so much, Matt.

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      1. I think there are moments in my childhood where I felt little support from my teachers or my parents, but that was due to my recklessness and clownish behaviour. Thankfully I woke up from that. If the punishment at home and school is unwarranted as it appears in your story, then that’s a very sad state of affairs. I also grew up in a time where the teacher was held up in high regard. I think that’s better than a sweeping disdain for authority which parents seem to be imparting onto their children.

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        1. Addressing your final point here about sweeping disdain for authority. I absolutely agree that is such a negative reaction on the part of parents. There needs to be honest dialog at home without immediately choosing one side over the other. All … not some but ALL stories have at least two sides and they need to be heard.

          Thanks Matt. Let’s hear it for being aware of our reckless ways and leaving them behind. I’m living proof of that!

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        1. As a male, English-born teacher in Thailand I’m shocked at how many female students confide in me their problems because they don’t feel support from their own families and teachers.

          Breaking out of a deeply patriarchal, misogynist societal structure will take lots of time. Girls learn from their mothers their perceived worth 😢

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