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.