Today's word: cacafuego (n.) a blustering braggart.

There's only one subject this poem could have been about, given the word of the day. Those with a smattering of Spanish will probably recognise that cacafuego literally means "fire-shitter". Sorry, but that's a fact.

The story behind this word is longer than I want to relate here, but it goes way back to an encounter between Sir Francis Drake and a Spanish galleon, the Nuestra Senora. Hence the nautical theme at the beginning and end of this poem.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

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