Tacent Turtle

Each day (except Sundays) in April, I'm writing poems with some obscure words starting with the letter of the day, and then doing a small watercolor to go with it.  Today's Letter is T in this Blogging A to Z Challenge.
 

Turtle

How tacent is the turtle
Without proclivity
To typhonic histrionics
Nor to rash tantivity

The turtle with its sturdy shell
Its carapace and plastron
Never leaves the swampy place
Without its tattersall case on.

Its scutes are cute
It twingles its tail
Its eyes twire when
It spies a snail.

It loves a tussock
Nigh the bog
To swim with toads
And polliwogs

Until it’s hungry
Then turtle’s whim
Is tarradiddle:
A pre-meal swim.

Then returning to tardiloquent
And tardigrade turtle mode
Upon a log or in the reeds
It awaits a transilient toad.

by Donna JT Smith ©2026

Tacent - silent
Typhonic - having the character of a whirlwind or tornado
Tantivy - at full gallop; headlong
Tattersall - fabric with a small checked pattern
Twingle - to wriggle; to twist
Twire - to peep; to leer
Tussock - a compact tuft of grass or sedge
Tarradiddle - lie; falsehood; nonsense; fib
Tardiloquent - speaking slowly
Tardigrade - slow-paced
Transilient - leaping or passing across
 

 Thank you to The Phrontistery for providing lots and lots of lesser used words!

 

Click on image to check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge