Terrapins?

"Terrapins" was what we in the Ozarks called the land turtles that crawled about in the dust, though I think the proper term is tortoise (for I have read, I believe, that the terrapin is water-dwelling, and therefore a true turtle, and that the name "terrapin" comes from one of the northeastern Indian tribes' languages and thus not from the Latin "terra," or land).

Terrapins, Terrapins

Terrapins are incurious creatures

that you might well as well call "homebodies,"

for one of their too few funny features

is not to leave home without home to seize!

Don't misunderstand, not home disease or

homesickness, but that they take home along,

when good and ready to go out the door,

with a sing-it-in-their-hearts wordless song.

I hope that this one isn't too bumpy a poem to be read aloud. That might disturb the grumpy.

Note to Recall: All turtles are homebodies! (Pass it on!)