I deign to frame another way --
e.g., "To be or not to be...?"
becomes "Is suicide for me...?"
"A jug of wine, a loaf of bread..."
I hear as "Rye...on rye!" instead.
At night, the lines I’ve run across
I recompose with no great loss.
What reads "A stitch in time saves nine"
now reads, "That tatter'd sleeve…? Not mine!"
"It was a dark and stormy night"
becomes "The weather suck'd. Alright...?"
At night, I rewrite news (today's)
in nuanc’d, neat and novel ways --
now "Climate change is here to stay"
reads "Hey! How hot it feels today!"
What was "I'm Socially Secure!"
is now "Quit working…? Premature!"
At night, the tales I heard when young
sound different, like a foreign tongue.
Now, "Once upon a time there was..."
is "That can't happen here because'..."
while "ever after" has become
"your sell-by date's expir’d, ol’ chum."
