Bark Without Bite

 

I strolled in the yard at dawn, hearing a bark—

A friendly dog’s greeting, so loud and so stark.

He wagged his tail proudly, declaring his say,

Yet behind him stood trees, their bark rough and gray.

A neighbor then warned, “Don’t bark up that tree!”

I chuckled at words that now puzzled me.

Why mention a bark if the tree cannot growl?

Yet the dog sniffed its trunk, beginning to howl.

The morning turned silly: a bark from the pup,

A bark on the tree trunk so firm standing up,

And “bark up the wrong tree” to caution my quest—

Three meanings of bark put my logic to test!

At last I got home, still grinning so wide,

I’d learned that one word had three twists that collide.

Some bark is a warning, some bark is just wood—

And sometimes a saying means things misunderstood.