He Never Did Poem by Terry Collett

Danny Cogan said
he was going to smash

your face in
after school,

but he never did,
it was just one

of his frequent threats
he dished out

to kids smaller
than himself;

You guessed
he didn’t have

the patience to wait
or maybe

he didn’t have it in him
to go through

with the threat
of punishment after all.

Then one day
he was taken off

by some weird guy
to the beach

and the cops
were searching for him

and his mother
was distraught

thinking the worse,
imaging him

dead some place,
buried in some woods

or damp ditch
or left on the beach

to be taken out
by the tide,

to the sea
and eaten by fishes,

but he wasn’t,
the guy was caught

and Danny found
sitting on the beach,

eating an ice-cream,
looking out to sea,

untouched and unharmed,
thankfully.