If I were you I'd tell him.
You would never catch me
letting someone like him
do a thing like that!
You want to tell him
what for! I would
raise a rabble
army to tell him, arms
folded baskets
loaded with butterfly 'what for'
landmines to frisbee
at him. His half-full threats
would clatter off our phalanx
of 'I woulds'. He would never
get away with it, were I you.
Just because ruffians
have a nuclear option - they'll
have you out, rough you up,
stiletto your neck
in the muffled night, keelhaul you
through the courts for your kids -
that shouldn't stop you
doing what I would do, then
facing the consequences
alone, maimed, geiger counter
a güiro to soundtrack the inferno,
but knowing you'd told him what for.
~
[Tell/give someone what for -
British colloquialism, meaning to
rebuke or punish someone severely.]
