We’ve commenced
our journey backward through Webster’s
3rd. I’m picking a word near the end of each entry for each letter—a word
that interests me for some reason or a word I’d not ever known before—and
surrounding it with a frayed coat of doggerel.
Words that flew into my life from Webster’s 3rd …
ozostomia
noun [oh-zuh-STO-mee-uh]
foulness of breath
The diagnosis wasn’t good—
He’d have the foulest breath.
He heard the news and groaned in pain,
As if he’d met his death.
He knew, of course, what would ensue—
What degradations came:
His reeking breath from here on in
Would join his very name.
“Oh, ozostomia!” he cried—
“It cannot be much worse!”
But then he saw (the other lane)
A swiftly moving hearse.
“Oh well,” he thought, “there are things worse.
I’d rather be alive.”
And so he chewed a lot of gum
And soon began to thrive
There in the Land of Love—a most
Forgiving, hopeful place.
He soon forgot about his breath.
A smile lived on his face.
For he had found a woman who
Had lost her sense of smell,
And so they married happily—
As he just loved to tell.
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