Mixed Metaphors and Postmodern Limericks

Some limericks are meant to sneak up and surprise you with an unexpected twist. Others only intend to wash over you like a warm bath on a quiet moonlit evening. And once in a while there’s a limerick, writhing with rhetoric, that exceeds all categories of understanding.

Metaphors are the language of poetry. But in popular culture, most limericks are more pornographical than metaphorical. As we lift the limerick out of that Procrustean bed and press the metaphoric envelope, we awaken the genre to a new capacity for expression.

The following series of limericks not only employs a medley of metaphors but leads them in unfamiliar directions to challenge our ordinary preconceptions. And just to mix things up, I’ll be sure to throw in a simile or two.

      Fractured Perceptions
      As the fortress of certainty starts to collapse
      We find ourselves caught in our own narrow traps
                  But remnants of dissidence
                  Cry for ambivalence
      Closing those bitter implacable gaps

      For Batter or Worse
      To savor the taste of modernity
      Release the strong hand of paternity
                  Then mix up your spices
                  Like virtues and vices
      To bake in a loaf of uncertainty

      Appetite of the Apprentice
      Encumbered by freights of unfairness
      The student awaits the awareness
                  And soon it will surface
                  Revealing our purpose
      The task for which fate has prepared us

      Ivory Exclamations
      Following phrases spontaneous
      Adorned with expressions extraneous
                  Essays of elephants
                  March with ineloquence
      Over the blissed miscellaneous

Butterflies always lend themselves well to metaphors. Whether you’re talking about the butterfly who flaps its wings in Rio de Janeiro or the moth who huddles around the flame, you can’t go wrong. But we rarely speak of the caterpillar who approaches her metamorphosis with the trepidation of one reluctant to change. And we almost never mention the imaginal discs that form inside the cocoon as the liquified larva reconstitutes itself to take the form of a butterfly.

      Metamorphosis
      The ambivalent chrysalis trembles
      Towards a future that nothing resembles
              Presented with risks
              From imaginal discs
      As the brave butterfly reassembles

      Over the Fulcrum
      To witness the cosmic totality
      One wrestles with every modality
              And thinking we’re clever
              We lean on the lever
      That tugs on the chain of causality

      Auto Correct
      In cognitive neutral I’m drifting
      It’s time that my thoughts began shifting
              To pump up the pistons
              That drive my existence
      Through inner states far more uplifting

      Forever Grateful
      With society sick and unsteady
      Our day-to-day problems seem petty
              So stop feeling stressed
              And give thanks you’ve been blest
      With some lim’ricks from someone named Freddy

 

 

Further Reading

If you enjoyed these unconventional and thought-provoking limericks, please consider purchasing one of my books or subscribing to the blog. I’m also available for private, custom-ordered limericks. And you might want to check out some of these popular articles.

• Limericks and Poetry about Mental Health
• Limericks about the Bhagavad Gita
• The History of Limericks from Shakespeare to Spirit Rock