Muhammad Dali


from the ABC set The Long and the Short of It...

Float like a butterknife,
sting like a tree:
look in the Miro, boy,
you ain't pretty like me.

Discuss this piece in the abctales forum


Comments

chuck | May 15, 2009 - 17:41

No other title could possibly do.

threeleafshamrock | May 16, 2009 - 10:33

Great! Filled me with dyslexia. ;)

Dynamaso | May 19, 2009 - 00:11

Funny, surreal and very enjoyable.

aqk | June 3, 2009 - 08:07

Heartiest congratulations for a well deserved cherry.I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

It is just my humble openion, but If you change

Float like a butterknife,
sting like a tree:

To

Float like a butterknife,
sting like an acacia tree:

It will improve the metre of this poem.

Ewan | June 3, 2009 - 09:36

Well, I take your point about the metre of the poem; however if I were going to work on it further I would change the last line.

Changing the second in the manner you suggest would take it too far from Muhammed Ali's original:

'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee': his own description of his style of boxing.

regards
Ewan

aqk | June 3, 2009 - 10:48

Oh, I see. I had forgotton Muhammed Ali's original:

'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee':

In that context, your version is better.

Best regards.
aqk