Cross-Cultural Sino-Americanisms

"Kill the chicken, scare the monkey,"
"Beat the drowning dog."
Make a mule from horse and donkey.
Slowly boil the frog.

Idioms and proverbs tell us:
"Don't eat yellow snow."
What Frank Zappa said befell us,
"Where the huskies go."

Make examples of the "crazy"
Anti-hero "swine."
Frighten both the dumb and lazy
So they'll toe the line.

Show some "strength" by boasting loudly
Of our low mean streak.
Stand, salute, and posture, proudly
Pounding on the weak.

Pick a fight, then borrow, losing
Trillions for some guns.
China, sick of the abusing,
From the dollar runs.

"No free lunch." Profoundly deep, though
Wall Street's hot to bet.
"Sheep's wool comes from off a sheep," so
Pay for what you get.

Chinese-English thoughts translated:
Colorful and crude;
Ignorant and educated;
Lyrical and lewd.

Which the cultured population?
Whose the longer view?
Hard-won Knowledge? Adulation?
Which, for whom, is true?

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright © 2018