Wishing our words were tactile,
we speak of them like textiles:
Dressed-up tales are made
out of whole cloth.
A fibber fabricates
as if his lie were a linen.
Text is cut from Latin: to weave,
what tellers do with tales.
A good yarn has many threads
and few loose ends.
A well-suited phrase becomes
a threadbare cliché.
So words are made fabric
to dwell among us,
metaphors bespoke to
dress the body parts of speech.
—Christopher J. Scalia
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Classical Education Keeps Growing
The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Martin Cothran joins in…
L.A. and Elon
The editors discuss the immigration riots in Los Angeles, and Donald Trump’s feud with Gavin Newsom. Then…
Zoning Out
In an era in which the American dream slips ever further from the grasp of the common…
