Sometimes words about words
are not enough, so we get illustrations.
Sextant, shrimp, shutters, Siamese cat.
Sidesaddle, silhouette, silo, siphon, sitar.

All the sails on a full-rigged ship.
A man riding in a sedan chair.
The height of a Saint Bernard’s shoulder.
The principal bones in a human skeleton.

Skedaddle: popularized in Civil War
slang and by my grandmother,
who also said peel a brodie, sparking,
and Grandpa, stop driving like Jehu.

I can still remember skedaddling
off to the swimming pool with one
of her oatmeal cookies in my mouth,
another in the folds of my towel.