Say what?
A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the Flea, "Let us fly!"
Said the Fly, "Let us flee!"
So they fled through a flaw in the flue.
-Ogden Nash?
(I've been getting conflicting reports on the authorship)
posted by Stephanie @ 4:43 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
This was part of the lore in my mother's family when I was a young child in the late 40s and early 50s. I associate it with my Swedish grandpa who lived next door, along with things like this ditty that was often recited at the dinner table:
Old ox, old ox,
How came you here?
You pulled the plow for many a year.
Stood kicks and cuffs and much abuse
But now you're here for table use.
He would also say things like "lets go sit on the floor and let our feet hang over."
There was always a friendly twinkle in his eyes, and word-play was a prominent feature of life in that family.
I suspect that humor like this was fairly common among depression-era folks in general.
Dad P.
I really like that poem. I read it to Brett and he said "a flaw?" so I explained it. Then he asked what a flew was. Oh bother.
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