The boy wouldn’t jump into the sea
too cold he said,
his mother’s friend called him a sissy
lifted the boy up and threw him into it.
The sea was shallow
but the boy panicked and went under,
his brother helped him ashore
where the adult laughed heartily and the boy said:
I wasn’t afraid only pretended,
but within him brewed dark thoughts of revenge.
When his mother’s friend came to use his new blue suit
it was generously smeared with white paint.
No one ever suspected the timid boy.