Lost Girls

you know the score

News at Ten

never anything good to report,

a young girl goes missing 

somewhere, not here though

she’s from a decent area

same old same old

it goes in one ear out the other

it’s out of character evidently

police search everywhere

nothing

so do the locals en-masse

door to door enquiries

then it’s on the local news

parents sobbing through an appeal

posters go up everywhere

even on sides of buses

nothing

and then it happens here

not two miles away

on the next estate

and all the above starts over again

we all know the outcome

nothing

remember Suzy Lamplugh

and that chef girl from up north

Claudia Lawrence

and Madelaine McCann

in Portugal

all gone without a trace

nothing

three years it’s been and

she could be anywhere,

the posters have either gone

curled up ripped down

or been defaced by graffiti

now we have to think hard

to remember our girl’s name

Leah Croucher

that’s it, poor little bugger

nothing

then someone rings the police

with information

a house

some personal effects

human remains

in the loft

less than half a mile

from her home

been there three years

and we are interested 

once more, 

we wait knowing 

the outcome already

what can be done

nothing

*

© Graham R Sherwood 10/22