NaPoWriMo Day #24

Today's prompt encouraged us to use a phrase, be it an idiom, cliche, saying. I used the Phrase Finder the prompt suggested and came up with a poem with multiple phrases in it. Growing up in Thailand, and being around people who didn't speak a lot of English, it becomes glaringly obvious how many idioms and sayings we really use in the English language.

Peas in a Pod

Kris and I

were two peas in a pod.


Most days
we were as good as gold,
but in the dog days of summer,
we ran around
like chickens with our heads cut off.


We’d trudge home
our mommas would say,
“Were you raised in a barn?”
For the rest of the day,
we’d toe the line,
lie low,
watching trash on TV.


The next day,
the wild goose chase
began again.
“Pipe down!”
our mommas would say,
“The babies are napping!”


We’d sneak off,
traipsing through the woods,
studying bugs,
wading in the creek,
skipping back for dinner,
making it in time,
by the skin of our teeth.


It wasn’t long
til we had to face the music
with long faces
begin school.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 24, 2010