Mondegreen Stew

There’s more here than meets the ear
More than anyone understands
Like an old story told fourth hand
The only constant is conversion
Everyone hears a different version
Pass it on, pass a ton
Past a one, past we won

It’s the Universe at the end of the restaurant
Where food for thought is easily bought
And chaos ordered anew
Serving misheard Mondegreen stew
Topped with poached portmanteaus
Battered earslips and eggcorns to dip
With a side of mangled malaprops too

There was an out-of-the-way cafè
So I wandered right on in
At once the audio buffet
Triggered a sense of recognition
I was offered a selection
Of sweet admonitions
Served with hot-cross puns
And double-shots of expression

There were troubadours in the rear
In the midst of an open-mike session
A parade of moron lessons
Misbegotten ballads
In rapid succession
Tossed word salads
Litanies of confession
And sea-soaked shanties
Of salty insurrection

It’s the Universe at the end of the restaurant
Where food for thought is easily bought
And chaos ordered anew
Serving misheard Mondegreen stew
Topped with poached portmanteaus
Battered earslips and eggcorns to dip
With a side of mangled malaprops too

This one sings out lull-a-byes
And we all shed a tear and sigh
That one slings barbed lampoons
Slick and dripping with crude
This one came with steam to vent
Scalding with bristling rage
Squeezed between broken laments
Mourning the darkness of our age

This one grumbles gritty blues
Woe woe woe a world of bad news
That one wails tales of mutinies
Betrayals by bygone buccaneers
Someone hails victories
Trumpeted in yesterday’s lore
Someone thunders the wonder
Of tomorrow’s rising roar

It’s the Universe at the end of the restaurant
Where food for thought is easily bought
And chaos ordered anew
Serving misheard Mondegreen stew
Topped with poached portmanteaus
Battered earslips and eggcorns to dip
With a side of mangled malaprops too