Collective Nouns for the Pandemic
From ancient use we know
These names of assembly:
A clowder of kittens,
A murder of crows,
A skulk of foxes,
An ambush of tigers,
A charm of goldfinches,
A wisdom of wombats,
A lamentation of swans.
Now we need new ones,
To meet the altered times.
A muffle of mask-wearers,
A chap of hand-washers,
A pantomime of social distancers,
A scurry of grocery shoppers,
A pining of quarantiners,
A graticule of Zoom participants,
A mendacity of politicians.
6 thoughts on "Collective Nouns for the Pandemic"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
An inventive description of our current herd
How creative! I love this.
Fantastic! I love this.
Was there really a clowder of kittens? If not, I don’t really care, I love it and plan to put it in my memory bank since I am always besieged with more kittens than I need, a clowder, what a great term and a very fun poem and so true.
Yes, “clowder” really is a traditional term for a group of cats.
I agree with all of the above. What fun to make up your own collective nouns.