Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We challenge you to write a poem in which the words or meaning of a familiar phrase get up-ended. 

Idiom: Close, but No Cigar

A story hangs on your shoulders,
thick in the air.
The words catch at your fingertips,
you know the story is there.

Percolating, circulating, accelerating—
Until,

There is a spark,
that ignites the stick,
that writes the story,
that sets the paper on fire.

Idiom: To Hit Rock Bottom

The only bottom I’m reachin’
Is in this bottle I’m drinkin’
And I’m thinkin’
That’s not what you’re meanin’