Cider

CIDER

-noun

1. an alcoholic drink made from the fermented juice of apples

2. an unfermented drink made from apple juice

A good book

A bowl of cider

Little left for improvement

After a long walking day

Warren

WARREN

-noun

1. a series of interconnected underground tunnels in which rabbits live

2. a colony of rabbits

3. an overcrowded area or dwelling

4. (mainly British) an enclosed place where small game animals or birds are kept, especially for breeding, or a part of a river or lake enclosed by nets in which fish are kept

5. (English legal history) a franchise permitting one to keep animals, birds, or fish in this way

 

She looks over the warren

A jumble of cages and boxes

Making sure she gets cuddles

Before allowing entry 

Ramshackle

RAMSHACKLE

-adj.

badly constructed or maintained; rickety, shaky, or derelict

Rickety bunch

Ramshackle pile

And a mug on top!

Candescent

CANDESCENT

-adj.

(rare) glowing or starting to glow with heat

To think a few weeks ago

Everything was candescent

A new straw hat needed

Now winter has struck again

And gloves are calling

Overmorrow

OVERMORROW

-noun

(obsolete!) The day after or following tomorrow.

Thank goodness overmorrow is Friday.

Salubrious

SALUBRIOUS

-adj.

conducive or favourable to health; wholesome

Humid

None too

Salubrious

Yet lush

Mar

MAR

-verb

1. (trans.) to cause harm to; spoil or impair

-noun

2. a disfiguring mark; blemish

Modern parasite

Electric cables crawl up the walls

Marring the scenery

Plastic ivy

Duxelles

DUXELLES

-noun

a mixture of finely diced mushrooms, shallots and parsley, or other herbs, used to flavour dishes  

Future mushroom broth

Rendered in rough duxelles

Eleutheromania

ELEUTHEROMANIA

-noun

a manic yearning for freedom

Claiming eleutheromania

As a basic feline right

Along with a side of minions

Askance

ASKANCE

-adv.
1. with a side-glance : obliquely
2. with disapproval or distrust : scornfully

All teeth out

Growling and looking askance

At innocent customers

Jealous roof

Scrim

SCRIM

-noun
an open-weave muslin or hessian fabric, used in upholstery, lining, building, and in the theatre to create the illusion of a solid wall or to suggest haziness, etc, according to the lighting

Spring has sprung

Liberating scrim-like vines

Onto the morning path

Burst of unassuming flowers

And the usual show-offs

Samsara

SAMSARA

-noun
1. (Hinduism) the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth
2. (Buddhism) the transmigration or rebirth of a person

Seeds for my cakes

Silk for my fingers

Colour for my soul

A symbol of death

Fragile samsara 

Bluette

BLUETTE

-noun
a short, brilliant piece of music

Night closed in
Passed by in a flash
A bluette undreamt of
Leaving me on the shore
Awake and grumpy
Aching for more

Spondee

SPONDEE

-noun

1. (prosody) a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables (– –)

(Provenance: from Old French spondée, derived from Latin spondēus, in turn borrowed from Greek spondeios, originally from spondē a ritual libation; from the use of spondee in the music played during such ceremonies)

Carving out words,

Looking for spondees

An elusive concept

For the non-native speaker

Strawberry

STRAWBERRY

-noun

1. any of various low-growing rosaceous plants of the genus Fragaria, such as F. vesca (wild strawberry) and F. ananassa (garden strawberry), which have white flowers and red edible fruits and spread by runners

2. the fruit of any of these plants, consisting of a sweet fleshy receptacle bearing small seedlike parts (the true fruits)

3. a purplish-red colour

Do we truly love

Strawberries?

Or are they just

An excuse for cream?