talking in a strange room
in a strange group of men and boys
i find myself at ease though
i am scared

bullies and violence do not
only come in the shape of bold unfeelings
in the disguise of school, gangs,
hands and guns

i served up my punch and intimidation
in words
and fed the poison to him;
already, i saw he was weak despite his size

his face covered by a sky blue mask
i saw only his eyes,
big round things that looked almost always
dampened with something deep inside

i asked him
"how do you know you chose your future?"
i said
"how do you know you chose your life?"

and he, so distraught at the sound of those words,
at once began to crumple himself into a ball of paper,
his certainty folded and creased,
his own sharp edges cut paper cuts into his skin

in pain, he looked at me
then looked away
he had no idea what to do now
confronted by the worst bully he'd ever seen

in me, in my words.
i pushed him one more time:
"how do you know you chose to be this way?"
and he fell away from us

somehow
pushing through the reflection glass
he leaped high into the night air
and suddenly

he was two:
one female, one male,
one full-bodied verging on fat,
one so skinny i knew he would never make it

at first, they floated
on the water by the boats,
so peacefully they rested hand in hand,
at ease on the bobbing surface

then
they disappeared
half sunken into the down below
half magically into the unknown

i stood in silence
until i awoke
then grabbed my computer
and typed this out.