Day 23 Of NaPoWriMo 2018.
The thing is anyone can see that there is
‘Big difference between the ox and the whiffletree,’
But many are ‘pert as a cricket,’ or ‘fine as frog fur,’
Happily calling it rain, when someone’s pissing on them.
But, talking anything rational with them is more
Like ‘burning daylight,’ or ‘whistling up the wind.’
I mean it takes a special someone with,
‘too many cobwebs in the attic,’ to believe someone who is
‘slicker than a slop jar or a boiled onion.’
I mean, come on y’all, howdayya believe someone who,
‘Knows more ways to take your money than a roomful of lawyers.’
Look, I tellya, ‘if that ain’t a fact, God’s a possum.’
Don’t believe anyone who can ‘chamber-of-commerced it’,
Don’t believe anyone who is ‘all hat and no cattle,’
Think for your selves y’all, ‘he’s all gurgle and not guts.’
And you don’t believe me, but I tell you
‘he’d steal the flowers off his grandma’s grave.’
He’s already known to
‘steal the nickels off a dead man’s eyes.”
Wake up y’all, otherwise just remember,
‘Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered.’
Notes
Today’s prompt was:
And now for today’s (optional) prompt! Kate Greenstreet’s poetry is spare, but gives a very palpable sense of being spoken aloud – it reads like spoken language sounds. In our interview with her, she underscores this, stating that “when you hear it, you write it down.” Today, we challenge you to honor this idea with a poem based in sound. The poem, for example, could incorporate overheard language. Perhaps it could incorporate a song lyric in some way, or language from something often heard spoken aloud (a prayer, a pledge, the Girl Scout motto). Or you could use a regional or local phrase from your hometown that you don’t hear elsewhere, e.g. “that boy won’t amount to a pinch.”
I have done a similar poem using Texas sayings back in 2016, thought, I would use the concept again. Texas sayings, and many of these are probably used in other southern states too, are colloquial, colorful and some are plain, ole’ downright funny.
