The problem with complexity is that as the mix gets more tortured then the meaning the audience take from it becomes further from your intention &/or they differ amongst themselves.
I nail my colours to the "one metaphor run as a thread" mast (unmixed those metaphors). Per verse at least, in a long song it can get overworked if it is stretched beyond it's plastic limit.
Say in a four verse song start with A advance through B & C and maybe THEN to D or swing it back A. OR with skill try running the logic of the first instances to meld A B &/or C as a closing act in the final verse.
ie telegraph the complexity by pre-empting.