Abecedarian: favored words

 

“I’m diving for large edible sea snails!”

“Ah, baloney.”

Shoot a blunderbuss

under a bumbershoot.

Caraway. Even as a young'un,

            I sensed the seeds of abandon.

For the rarest of what’s common,

I choose dandelion.

Embouchure was for fluting

            until I saw my baby nursing.

In Ferrocarril each RR rolls

            railroad rhythm.

Reckon it’s easier to admire gonzo

not knowing exactly what it is.

Heliofranticulating: nineteen letters

            on a body’s disequilibrium.

Ischia, suboptimally,

            come with a k sound.

Jujube, from Greek zizyphon,

shows that Zs grow into Js.

Likely you’ve heard of kookaburra

            and never heard a kookaburra.

Lambic is a fermented adjective,

            downed as a noun.

When Bert sang, “La-la-la-linoleum!”

            I imagined an opulent gazebo.

Sprouting open and shutting,

            the whole mouth loves mushroom.

Elements of beauty like nacre

            seem to deserve their specificity.

Favored words are disproportionately

onomatopoeic (yummy itself).

Stretch consciously before exercise

psoas not to strain.

I’ve laid a triple-scoring quiz in Scrabble,

but never corralled quixotic.

In poetry, rondeau from the French,

            in music, Italian, rondo.

Not still said: sockdolager (1820s, a blow)

and sploghm (1940, goodbye)

Onomotopeic scene: novelist narrating

a tête-à-tête on a typewriter

Beware the umberhulk—

            ape’s body with head like a beetle’s.

Always thought villains should

            pen villanelles in their villas.

What humans will anthropomorphize!

Will-o-the-wisps are ignited swamp farts.

Primeval xeriscapes

            had no name before 1985.

“The dressmaker makes dresses,

and her daughter’s full of yesses.”

Zettabyte’s theoretical in 2012,

when the Internet is reckoned in exa-.