Slugabed

SLUGABED

-noun
1. One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.



Furry slugabeds
Dreaming the world around them
So we might step out
And go forth
While they wait.

Blue

BLUE

–noun
1. the pure colour of a clear sky; the primary colour between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
2. something having a blue colour.
3. a person who wears blue or is a member of a group characterized by some blue symbol.
4. (often initial capital letter) a member of the Union army in the American Civil War or the army itself.
5. any of several blue-winged butterflies of the family Lycaenidae.
6. the blue,
a. the sky.
b. the sea.
c. the remote distance.
–adj.
7. of the colour of blue.
8. (initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the Union army in the American Civil War.
9. (of the skin) discoloured by cold, contusion, fear, or vascular collapse.
10.depressed in spirits; dejected; melancholy.
11.holding or offering little hope; dismal; bleak.
12.characterized by or stemming from rigid morals or religion.
13.marked by blasphemy.
14.(of an animal's hair) greyish-blue.
15.indecent; somewhat obscene; risqué.
–verb (used with object)
16.to make blue; dye a blue colour.
17.to tinge with bluing.
–verb (used without object)
18.to become or turn blue.






















Blue is the colour of your smile as you lie in your grave,
Colours robbed from you with the air you breathed.
I wonder about the shade of your softly closed eyes
And that of the world they held in their throes:
The golden fire they once flashed about, faded to ashes
Life, a melancholy tone of greys and blues.


Vintage beauty appears courtesy of Inspyretash-stock at Deviant Art.

Comestible

COMESTIBLE

-adj.
1. Suitable to be eaten; edible.
-noun
1. Something suitable to be eaten; food.






















Comestible pursuits
Had dragged her there
In this confrontation
With a plate of pasta.

The dish was coy
Yet invincible:
In its apparent defeat
It won the battle.

Reverberate

REVERBERATE

–verb (used without object)
1. to re-echo or resound.
2. Physics. to be reflected many times, as sound waves from the walls of a confined space.
3. to rebound or recoil.
4. to be deflected, as flame in a reverberatory furnace.
–verb (used with object)
5. to echo back or re-echo (sound).
6. to cast back or reflect (light, heat, etc.).
7. to subject to reflected heat, as in a reverberatory furnace.
–adj.
8. Also : reverberant.






















In the heat
The stones reverberate
The spirit of those past
As they murmur
Their tale to the clouds

Ephemeral

EPHEMERAL

–adj.
1. lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.
2. lasting but one day.
–noun
3. anything short-lived, as certain insects.




Black lace butterfly
Or a moth in deep mourning?
Ephemeral leaves.


Background with butterfly courtesy of JoesSistah

Perendinate

PERENDINATE

verb tr.
To put off until the day after tomorrow.
verb intr.
To stay at a college for an extended time



Such a nice view
Might cause the mind to perendinate
Suspended in the act of thinking
If not robbing breath.

Eleemosynary

ELEEMOSYNARY

-adj.
1. of or pertaining to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable.
2. derived from or provided by charity.
3. dependent on or supported by charity






















Thick walls and deep shadows,
Eleemosynary architecture
Offering shelter from sweltering heat.

Horde

HORDE

–noun
1. a large group, multitude, number, etc.
2. a tribe or troop of Asian nomads.
3. any nomadic group.
4. a moving pack or swarm of animals



Roman Empire hordes,
Treading those same stones for goods.
Refracted heat.

Inch

INCH

-noun
1. a unit of length, 1/12 foot, equivalent to 2.54 centimetres.
2. a very small amount of anything; narrow margin.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
3. to move by inches or small degrees.























Evening inching in
Lamp after street lamp
Drawing shadows out
From their hiding place.

Rife

RIFE

–adj.
1. of common or frequent occurrence; prevalent; in widespread existence, activity, or use.
2. current in speech or report.
3. abundant, plentiful, or numerous.
4. abounding (usually followed by "with")






















Dreams, history,
Rife in colours and shapes
Mute tragedy.

Stemware

STEMWARE

-noun
Glass things with stems: glasses, goblets, and other glass vessels that have stems






















Stemware treasures,
Keeping precious substance up high.
A liturgy of their own.

Grangerise

GRANGERISE

–verb (used with object)
1. to augment the illustrative content of (a book) by inserting additional prints, drawings, engravings, etc., not included in the original volume.
2. to mutilate (books) in order to get illustrative material for such a purpose.



Digital collages:
A grangerizing of pictures
Not intended to mix,
Strangers at a party
Struggling with small talk.

Child appearance courtesy of George Eastman House.

Encomia

ENCOMIA

-noun
a formal expression of high praise; eulogy



No amount of encomia
Would ever satisfy the tyrant
Who knew of its supremacy

Umber

UMBER

–noun
1. an earth consisting chiefly of a hydrated oxide of iron and some oxide of manganese, used in its natural state as a brown pigment (raw umber) or, after heating, as a reddish-brown pigment (burnt umber).
2. the color of such a pigment; dark dusky brown or dark reddish brown.
3. Ichthyology. the European grayling, Thymallus thymallus.
4. North England Dialect. shade; shadow.
–adj.
5. of the color umber.
–verb (used with object)
6. to color with or as if with umber.






















Cantaloupe:
Streaked jaundiced twin breasts
Umber storm.

Birl

BIRL

verb tr., intr.
1. To rotate (a floating log) by running on it in place.
2. To spin or rotate.



She’d birl
In a swirl
Going after a tail
That would not sit still

Copse

COPSE

–noun
a thicket of small trees or bushes; a small wood.



Copse in bloom
Strangling the wharf.
Purple shade

Thrive

THRIVE

-verb
1. to prosper; be fortunate or successful.
2. to grow or develop vigorously; flourish






















Thrive slowly,
Light folds and unfolds.
Gibbous moon

Texture by JoesSistah
Catalog card generator by Blyberg

Antrum

ANTRUM

-noun
1. A cavity or chamber, especially one in a bone.
2. Either of the sinuses in the bones of the upper jaw, opening into the nasal cavity.



Small in size,
Cluttered by rubbish and feral weeds
The antrum could not be entered.

Obtuse

OBTUSE

–adj.
1. not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect; not sensitive or observant; dull.
2. not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form.
3. (of a leaf, petal, etc.) rounded at the extremity.
4. indistinctly felt or perceived, as pain or sound.



In despair
I called you a liar and a cheat.
You laughed
Blaming me for being obtuse
For being incapable
Of solving the riddle in your eyes
The anagram.


Vintage lady, butterflies and manuscript courtesy of JoesSistah.

Ort

ORT

-noun
A scrap of food left after a meal.






















So hungry was I for your smiles
That I started to hunt their shadows
Orts left after someone else’s banquet
That I would steal with a growl
To devour later in the private sphere
Of my dreams.

Asunder

ASUNDER

–adv., -adj.
1. into separate parts; in or into pieces.
2. apart or widely separated.



Yin and Yang
Never asunder
Never mixed
But ready to gang up on the unsuspecting.

Anagram

ANAGRAM

–noun
1. a word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters.
2. anagrams, (used with a singular verb ) a game in which the players build words by transposing and, often, adding letters.
–verb (used with object)
3. to form (the letters of a text) into a secret message by rearranging them.
4. to rearrange (the letters of a text) so as to discover a secret message.



Read
This
Sideways
Anagram
Trying to escape
From lying mellifluous eyes
Proposing mysteries, withholding crucial clues.

Vintage beauty courtesy of Grannyatticstock at Deviant Art

Ocean

OCEAN

–noun
1. the vast body of salt water that covers almost three fourths of the earth's surface.
2. any of the geographical divisions of this body, commonly given as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic oceans.
3. a vast expanse or quantity



Like an ocean...
I sailed the sea of your eyes
Scaling every wave on your face
To lose myself in the maelstrom on your laughter
Let the ripples where mocking gulls dive
Gurgle and giggle
Back to serenity.

Coy

COY

–adj.
1. artfully or affectedly shy or reserved; slyly hesitant; coquettish.
2. shy; modest.
3. showing reluctance, esp. when insincere or affected, to reveal one's plans or opinions, make a commitment, or take a stand.
4. Archaic. disdainful; aloof.
5. Obsolete. quiet; reserved.
–verb (used without object)
6. Archaic. to act in a coy manner.
–verb (used with object) Obsolete.
7. to quiet; soothe.
8. to pat; caress.




Coy seduction in
Kimono sleeve left hanging.
Multi-layered clouds
Slipping off a blue shoulder;
Skittish summer firmament.

Sniffle

SNIFFLE

–verb (used without object)
1. to sniff repeatedly, as from a head cold or in repressing tears.
–noun
2. an act or sound of sniffling.
3. sniffles, a condition, as a cold, marked by sniffling (usually preceded by "the")






















Teapot sniffles;
An amber drop catches light.
Word left unwritten.

Bottle

BOTTLE

–noun
1. a portable container for holding liquids, characteristically having a neck and mouth and made of glass or plastic.
2. the contents of such a container; as much as such a container contains.
3. bottled cow's milk, milk formulas, or substitute mixtures given to infants instead of mother's milk.
4. the bottle, intoxicating beverages; liquor.
–verb (used with object)
5. to put into or seal in a bottle.
6. British. to preserve (fruit or vegetables) by heating to a sufficient temperature and then sealing in a jar.

–noun Architecture.
1. Also, boutel, boutell, bowtel, bowtell: a convex moulding, as a torus or ovolo.
2. Also, bottle: a curved fractable.
























I once wrote you a letter
Which I slipped inside a bottle.
The bottle had held some very nice wine
(I had drunk it all in search for courage and words)
And I thought I had drained it all.
But when you broke the bottle
To read my prose
You found it full of drunken letters
Uproarious grammaticals and
Tittering errors.

Cynosure

CYNOSURE

–noun
1. The constellation of the Lesser Bear, to which, as containing the polar star, the eyes of mariners and travellers were often directed.
2. That which serves to direct.
3. Anything to which attention is strongly turned; a centre of attraction.






















The mirror acted as cynosure
Attracting the eye
Where it might sink and founder
An abyss that could not reflect.

Cobweb

COBWEB

–noun
1. a web spun by a spider to entrap its prey.
2. a single thread spun by a spider.
3. something resembling a cobweb; anything finespun, flimsy, or insubstantial.
4. a network of plot or intrigue; an insidious snare.
5. cobwebs, confusion, indistinctness, or lack of order.
–verb (used with object)
6. to cover with or as with cobwebs.
7. to confuse or muddle






















Morning tea smoking,
Tearing away night cobwebs.
Sweet violet scent.

Disinter

DISINTER

-verb tr.
1. To remove from a grave.
2. To bring to light.



Your eyes disintered me
Making me whole once more
And almost luminous.

On my own
I had forgotten
Existence.

Algae courtesy of the New York Public Library.

Curator

CURATOR

–noun
1. the person in charge of a museum, art collection, etc.
2. a manager; superintendent.
3. Law. a guardian of a minor, lunatic, or other incompetent, esp. with regard to his or her property.






















This skull would be an adequate
Curator for the forty cadavers
Of the shots bringing me back to life.

Ductile

DUCTILE

-adj.
1.Easily extruded as wire and the like or pounded into a specific shape.
2.Malleable, pliable, easily shaped.
3.Easily influenced or persuaded, pliable, suggestible.



In my ductile dreams
I vied for control of the bed
Only to realise it was controlling me.