In the Dictionary of Lesser-Known Collective Nouns

In the Dictionary of Lesser-Known Collective Nouns

An error of English teachers frolicked

with a frigate of immigrants,

egged on by a barrel of publicans.

Predictably there was a zoo 

of party animals careening

into their future as a puddle of drunks.

Even the divorcees formed a copse,

lining the cemeteries of roads-less-traveled

reciting a Bougainvillea of broken vows.

You could throw a dart anywhere

at the English language 

and always hit something to fear.

The margins are littered with pithy warnings:

nouns hit with heavier gloves

than adjectives; strength in numbers

must always be measured against

the cost of a collective consciousness;

colourful seeds often bear dull fruits,

same goes for farmers; the right to die

alone belongs only to the planet;

there is nothing unique in loneliness.

~

Appears in Snakeskin 182