Cliches | Poems by Martin Abramson

Cats

The curious cat

When away

May find itself

Belled, or out of

All nine lives

Or skinned in more ways than one.

Or it may get let

Out of the bag

Rain down with dogs

Make copies

Play cat and mouse

And finally

(Finale!)

Swallow the canary.

Dog Days

You can't teach an old dog

To lie in a manger,

But if it's sleeping

You can let it lie

Or lie with it

And get up with fleas.

Hair of dog helps

When you're sick as a

Or going to the

Or when doggone dogmatists

Doggedly dog your steps.

But even when

Being the underdog,

In this dog-eat-dog

Dog'life

Gives you that hangdog look,

Take heart,

You'll have your day.

Horse Sense

If you put a gift-horse

Before an upset apple-cart,

And let it eat like one,

and work like one

You may as well

Lead it to water,

Look in its mouth,

Or lock the barn.

If you're champing at the bit,

And don't spare them,

You might change in mid-stream,

Drown, and have people still

Beating your corpse.

Money

If money is the root of all evil

Surely it should grow on trees.

If you've got good money

To burn

Or flush down the toilet

Or throw after bad,
Take your time,

Since that's money too--

Unless you're a fool

In which case,

Spend it immediately,

Now! Today!

Starstruck

Hoping to strike it rich,

You strike while the iron's hot,

But with two strikes against you,

You strike out.

Then fate strikes...

You stroke out.

At your funeral,

The gravediggers are on strike;

So you try to strike a bargain

With God,

Which strikes Him as funny.

Roses

Roses are rose

Violets are violet.

Roses and violets

Are fire and indigo

Scarlet and plum

Aurora and amethyst

Carmine and lavender

Crimson and heliotrope.

Tear open every cliche,

Unpack its sumptuous wardrobe

Try on its velour costumes.

Roses are infrared

Violets are ultraviolet

Orchids are orgasms.