Don’t Let Our Filters Spook You

A wet cattle grate
Can startle you well,
If you hit the brakes
As your tires cross it—
Skip-skid, and you’ve slid

When you intended
To slow down a bit.
It’s a metaphor
For whatever seems
Similar somehow,

As metaphors are,
Bridges connecting
Similarities
To carry meanings
Safely between them.

But grates in the road
Work by triggering
Inherent caution
In free-range cattle.
Come to think of it,

They’re the opposite
Of a metaphor—
Carrying over
Goes fine without grates.
They’re added filters.