Brian Bilston writes:
Here’s a poem which is - to all intensive purposes - about misheard / misinterpreted phrases or ‘eggcorns’.
It’s called “On Tender Hooks”.
Let me cut to the cheese:
every time you open your mouth,
I'm on tender hooks.
You charge at the English language
like a bowl in a china shop.
Please nip it in the butt.
On the spurt of the moment,
the words tumble out.
It's time you gave up the goat.
Curve your enthusiasm.
Don't give them free range,
The chickens will come home to roast.
And now you are in high dungeon.
You think me a damp squid:
on your phrases I should not impose.
But they spread like wildflowers
in a doggy-dog world
and your spear of influence grows.
Brian Bilston