By: Carl Palmer

I’ve heard it a lot lately. Is it a current cliché
or catch phrase, the pat answer recap signaling
an end to any further conversation about it ?

Like the sobbing boy holding his empty cone,
ice cream scoop on the floor as his dad hugs
him and says, Don’t cry, son, it is what it is.

Or a response of surrender, of defeat, giving up,
helplessly accepting things being what they are,
nothing more and nothing can be done about it ?

Like the coach at the post game press conference
fielding endless questions about why he lost the
game ending his interview with,  It is what it is.

Rather than it is what it is,maybe it should be
it ain’t what it ain’t  ~ ‘taint what ‘taint
or it is not what it is not  ~ ‘snot what ‘snot.

Still, whatever it is or it isn’t, it remains it.
It is what it is ~ it’s what it’s
or as the poet says, ‘tis what ‘tis.