Real Mixed Metaphors

author's note:

I so enjoy being serious.

But I also enjoy being nonsensical.

So I've tried to satisfy both desires in the poem below.


REAL MIXED METAPHORS

My clipper ship, though real
is also a leaky tugboat--climbing

up this real mountain

that's also a flat dusty desert
with a real barb-wire fence

and my real heroism
involves losing the fight
and having those barbs
rip my heart open
as I triumph in my climb

up these mountain waves

which means sometimes
I must go under

to resurrect the unknown soldier
from his tomb in the deep.

© 2012, Michael R. Patton
searching for the new mythology