This week let’s write a back to school poem. It could be from the point of view of a student, a teacher, a parent, the school, whatever this awful time of year evokes. Post your poem in the comments below before I send you to the principal’s office.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
Comeback
He wasn’t Most Popular.
He wasn’t Most Likely
to Succeed, teachers
thought him a bore.
Girls didn’t hang on his arm
on each Prom night,
they giggled and left gum
inside all his books.
From skinny and bullied,
he learned to be wily,
he learned how to bribe
and to pay his way forward.
He buried the thugs
who oppressed him
in high school
in lawsuits and rumors
and clawed himself up
to the top of the heap.
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Posted by nolchafox | August 28, 2023, 10:16 AMA tragic portrait of a victim who becomes a bully. Well done!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | August 28, 2023, 7:12 PMThanks so much!
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Posted by nolchafox | August 28, 2023, 7:17 PMLikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Cassa Bassa | September 9, 2023, 8:50 PMLove the “secret promises and heartbreak murmurs” Great work!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | September 9, 2023, 10:59 PM