By Nolo Segundo

 

English is not a language

One can ever get ahead of—

Just too darn many words!

 

Like ‘ludic’ for example:

Playful, in the sense of

Spontaneous, without a

Real purpose.  Sooo…

How come I never came

Across it in over sixty,

Yes, sixty years  reading

Untold millions of words in

My beloved mother tongue,

The language I love,

The language I married.

 

Even spell-check never saw it,

Or else why would it underline

Little Ludic  in red, like some sort

Of  criminal who needs a good

Sorting out, a spell in scary

Word prison perhaps?

 

But if you try, really try,

You can find sweet Ludic

Laying low, hiding quietly in the

Big fat Oxford Dictionary, lord

And regent of all word books.

 

He lives there with his cousins:

Ludibrious and that stuffed shirt,

Ludibry, and Ludicro (no doubt

From the Italian side of the

Family) and, of course, the far

More famous Ludicrous who

Seems to want all the spotlight

For himself…words can be

So very selfish too.