Got a mother and a father they’re one thousand years away The rulers of the Killing Ground are coming out to play Everybody thinking: ‘Who they going to play with today?’
Well you get it for being Jewish And you get it for being black You get it for being chicken And you get it for fighting back You get it for being big and fat Get it for being small
Oh those who get it get it and get it For any damn thing at all
Sometimes they take a beetle, tear off its six legs one by one Beetle on its black back, rocking in the lunchtime sun But a beetle can’t beg for mercy, a beetle’s not half the fun
I heard a deep voice talking, it had that iceberg sound ‘It prepares them for Life’ – but I have never found Any place in my life worse than The Killing Ground.
EXPLORE W7.6
1. 2. 3. 4.
Write a sentence beginning, ‘In this poem, I noticed that ... ’. Share your answer with a classmate or your class. Make a note of observations that other students make.
Make a list of all the numbers in the poem and what they refer to. What effect does the use of numbers have here?
The poem refers to the ‘Killing Ground’, which makes the playground sound like a war zone. What other war imagery is there in the poem?
One of the themes of this poem is bullying. What do you think the poet is saying about bullying?
