Wordbirds, 16

This new series—“Wordbirds”—arises from a journey I am taking through my Webster’s 3rd Dictionary. What I’m doing: I look on the first page for each letter, and the first word that flies up at me (because I don’t know it, because I just think it’s interesting, etc.) becomes the subject for that day’s doggerel. I will move through letter z, then work my way back again, the second time using the last page of each letter’s section of Webster's. Let’s see what happens ...

Words that flew into my life from Webster’s 3^rd …

pacate adj.

tranquil, peaceful

It started out a pacate day

Beneath the Arizona sky.

But Tombstone lived another way,

So bullets soon began to fly.

Old Wyatt and his brothers and

Doc Holliday (his pal)—

A formidable and fiery band—

Shot up the famed O.K. Corral.

And so it goes for pacate days:

They sometimes don't turn out the best—

For shootists and their guns will blaze—

Or so it was out in the West.