Wordbirds, 25

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 …

yaffingale noun

a green woodpecker

yaffing = in imitation of the bird’s laughing sound

Tod thought he heard a yaffingale

There in the cool and shady dale.

And so he sat beneath a tree

To hear the piquant symphony.

But then he got a sore surprise—

As bad as nature could devise:

The tree fell over—thank the bird.

And “Crack!” the last thing poor Tod heard.