Wise Saws and Modern Instances

I never sawed off a limb I was on, but I once almost caused a limb to crash into the ladder I was on.

                                                          Wise Saws and Modern Instances

                                                    Almost finished cutting off a rotten limb,
                                                    I realized its fall would fell the ladder
                                                    I was on, making me a cartoon
                                                    casualty – like Wile E. Coyote, always
                                                    hoisted with his own Acme petard.
                                                    So I left it for the wind to finish.
                                                    If it fell on me, it would be an Act
                                                    of God – and not of Warner Brothers.

Pop culture note for foreign readers:  Warner Brothers made a lot of slapstick, comic cartoons, including those in which Wile E. Coyote repeatedly tried to capture the Road Runner with devices from Acme that always backfired and did damage to Wile E. instead.

Shakespeare notes:  "Wise saws and modern instances"  comes from As You Like It and means wise proverbial sayings and modern examlples.   "Hoisted with his own petard" comes from Hamlet and refers to a soldier or military engineer being hurt by his own explosive weapon, a bombmaker being blasted by his own bomb.