Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
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His enemies say he's on their land
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They got him outnumbered about a million to one
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He got no place to escape to, no place to run
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
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He's criticized and condemned for being alive
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He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
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He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
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He's wandered the earth an exiled man
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Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
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He's always on trial for just being born
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
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Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
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Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
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The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
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That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
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'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
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And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Well, he got no allies to really speak of
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What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
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He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
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But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
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They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
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Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
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They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
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Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
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He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
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In bed with nobody, under no one's command
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
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No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
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He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
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Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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What's anybody indebted to him for ?
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Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
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Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
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They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
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He's the neighborhood bully.
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What has he done to wear so many scars ?
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Does he change the course of rivers ? Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
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Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
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Running out the clock, time standing still
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Neighborhood bully.
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Neighborhood Bully
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| Bob Dylan |
