Three Figures of Speech
(i) Oxymorons
Bellowing so soundlessly at distant, solar moons,
we're squatters in a cold, palatial slum;
shipwrecked in a landlocked harbour; desiccated blooms
whose newly-ancient parts exceed their sum.
No roominess within these vacant rooms,
a want of absence in their vacuum.
(ii) Similes
A stippled pike looks like a pike,
string just resembles 'string':
no discrete thing is truly 'like'
another discrete thing.
(iii) Mixed Metaphors
Though counting our blessings
we know life is cheap,
a three-legged gift-horse
which looks but won't leap-
we bite on the bullet
and never say 'die'
whilst banana skins fall
out of clear, blue skies.
