Neighborhood Bully - Bob Dylan

I’m not a big Dylan fan, but he sure had a way with words…

  Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
  His enemies say he's on their land
  They got him outnumbered about a million to one
  He got no place to escape to, no place to run
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
  He's criticized and condemned for being alive
  He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
  He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
  He's wandered the earth an exiled man
  Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
  He's always on trial for just being born
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
  Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
  Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
  The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
  That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
  'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
  And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Well, he got no allies to really speak of
  What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
  He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
  But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
  They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
  Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
  They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
  Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
  He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
  In bed with nobody, under no one's command
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
  No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
  He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
  Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  What's anybody indebted to him for ?
  Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
  Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
  They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
  He's the neighborhood bully.

  What has he done to wear so many scars ?
  Does he change the course of rivers ? Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
  Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
  Running out the clock, time standing still
  Neighborhood bully.