Juxtaposition

For Poetry Thursday's idea this week, we were to choose a word or words we didn't know the meanings of and write about them. A little like unwrapping a present with your eyes closed.
The word I have chosen is ‘cassoulet’, which without looking to see how it should be pronounced, I hear in my head as ‘cass-oo-lay’. The spelling of it reminds me of ‘poulet’ the French word for hen, and so the idea of a heavy-boned bird comes to mind.
To me the word ‘cassoulet’ has a sad sound. A sound of regret and unattainable desires. Of unrequited flight.

cassoulet

A squat and stocky bird
a little too heavy

a little too drab,
the cassoulet

cannot fly very high
but must instead

bear the heaviness
of fattened poultry.

And yet each morning
just before daylight scolds

such impertinence,
the cassoulet thinks itself

a lark swept up in an eddy
of lightness. Oh cassoulet!

***
Now, after looking up the meaning of cassoulet, I find it to be a meat and beans casserole! However, as the next word down in my dictionary is ‘cassowary’ - a description for any large, flightless Australian bird - I am led to the conclusion that when I randomly chose the word ‘cassoulet’ my eye also picked up the word below, ‘cassowary’, (the meaning of which I do know) and somehow in the interim, my brain juxtaposed the two words.

Bird stew anyone?