Watch Out for the B Poem

"Red Glassy Bison" by Piotr Siedlecki

On my personal Facebook page, I asked my friends and family to give me 20 B words. I got a list of 21 or 22. You want to count them? I don't. Okay, I counted them: 22.

This is the list of B words:

brush, bison, belligerent, brown, bicep, beryllium, buccinators, bacon, balloon, Bolivia, beginning, bravo, bulbous, bingo, brachylogy, buxom, baloney, believe, bugging, Beetle Juice, brachiosaurus, Bilbo

Some of these words reflect the personality of the person who supplied them. I'm sure there may be stories behind the other choices.

A nurse chose buccinators.
Brother-in-law in Montana chose bison.
A body coach chose bicep.
My cousin chose brachylogy. He posts occasionally on FB.

Other words beginning with b sneaked in while I wrote: bore, boy, bellowed, but, Bruce, Bertha, birth, bowels, banish, and bone.


Here's the poem:

Buxom Bertha labored two days, then bore a boy.
Her belligerent spouse declared the boy, Beetle Juice;
“Baloney!” Bertha bellowed and popped out a second joy.
“Fine, Beetle Juice and Bilbo—but not the name Bruce.”

Bertha believed in bulbous biceps for her lads
And fed them bison bacon from birth, but no beryllium.
Beginning in their buccinators, BJ and Bilbo chewed scads,
But their bowels hurt and mum gave them husk of psyllium.

“Stop bugging me!” BJ punched Bilbo’s brown balloon.
“Mum and Dad will banish you to Bolivia,” Bilbo cried.
He threw BJ’s bone brush and brachiosaurus toward the moon.
BJ ran and caught beloved broccoli-saur midstride.

“Bravo, BJ!” Bertha called from the window.
“Bingo!” Dad jumped and threw down his newspaper.
The brachylogy and praise bugged poor Bilbo.
Bilbo growled, “You won’t get away with this caper!”


My cousin-in-law asked on Facebook: "Why you picking on Bruce?" 

I replied: "Because he happens to rhyme with juice. That's the only reason. Rhyming misfortune."

A cousin included brachiosaurus because her oldest daughter called it a broccoli-saurus as a toddler. So technically, the word comes from my cousin once removed. I made a tribute to them with broccoli-saur.

To my brother-in-law who lived in Bolivia for two years: I'm not picking on Bolivia. It just happened to be a word I had to use.