Clean as a Whistle

Clean as a whistle.

What if this simile is not a true simile,

but an ironic twist.

What if the innovator knew that

a real whistle is full of

every thing that has been the user’s mouth.

Every piece of meat,

every sip of tomato juice,

every loose item that somehow has found its way into that mouth.

And that every time you told someone that you were

clean as a whistle

you were actually telling them who you really are.

An object that makes a sweet, shrill noise

abetted

by bacteria and mold.