Breath

BREATH

–noun
1. the air inhaled and exhaled in respiration.
2. respiration, especially as necessary to life.
3. life; vitality.
4. the ability to breathe easily and normally.
5. time to breathe; pause or respite.
6. a single inhalation or respiration.
7. the brief time required for a single respiration; a moment or instant.
8. a slight suggestion, hint, or whisper.
9. a light current of air.
10.Phonetics.
a. the air drawn into or expelled from the lungs to provide the generative source for most speech sounds.
b. the audible expiration generating voiceless speech sounds, as (p), (k), (sh), etc.
11.moisture emitted in respiration, esp. when condensed and visible.
12.a trivial circumstance; trifle.
13.an odorous exhalation, or the air impregnated by it.
14.Obsolete. exhalation or vapour.



Midday,
All shadows have disappeared,
Pinning us down to the tarmac
We hold our breaths close
For fear they might not return
If allowed to fly.
Seconds crawl about,
Minutes.
Our lungs start hurting
Then the sun moves on.

Vitiate

VITIATE

–verb (used with object)
1. to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
2. to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
3. to debase; corrupt; pervert.
4. to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate



More often than not
Seedy behaviour
Would vitiate statements
Of good manners
Proffered in court.

Rogue

ROGUE

–noun
1. a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
2. a playfully mischievous person; scamp.
3. a tramp or vagabond.
4. a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
5. Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal.
–verb (used without object)
6. to live or act as a rogue.
–verb (used with object)
7. to cheat.
8. to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).
9. to perform this operation upon.
–adj.
10.(of an animal) having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
11.no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade























A rogue imp
Petrified in the act
Of stealing a basket of strawberries
Impenitent
Vexes senses of justice
And good taste.

Wizen

WIZEN

–verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
1. to wither; shrivel; dry up.
-adj.
2. lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness























How unfair
That you and I
Should wizen away
Disappear
Why she rests
Splendid and untouched
For millenia

Humour

HUMOUR

–noun
1. a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement: t.
2. the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical.
3. an instance of being or attempting to be comical or amusing; something humorous.
4. the faculty of expressing the amusing or comical.
5. comical writing or talk in general; comical books, skits, plays, etc.
6. humours, peculiar features; oddities; quirks.
7. mental disposition or temperament.
8. a temporary mood or frame of mind.
9. a capricious or freakish inclination; whim or caprice; odd trait.
10.(in medieval physiology) one of the four elemental fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, regarded as determining, by their relative proportions, a person's physical and mental constitution.
11.any animal or plant fluid, whether natural or morbid, as the blood or lymph.
–verb (used with object)
12.to comply with the humour or mood of in order to soothe or make content or more agreeable.
13.to adapt or accommodate oneself to.






















Her sense of humour
Festering
On the edge of rabid
Would bite more often than not
Infectious
Thick and fluid
As a heavy fever.

Binge

BINGE

–noun
1. a period or bout, usually brief, of excessive indulgence, as in eating, drinking alcoholic beverages, etc.; spree.
–verb (used without object)
2. to have a binge






















Holidays came with a minimum of binge
Lest they felt somewhat flavour-less.

Lest

LEST

–conjunction
1. for fear that; so that (one) should not (used negatively to introduce a clause expressive of an action or occurrence requiring caution)
2. that (used after words expressing fear, danger, etc.)






















Don't smile
Lest you like to be thought of as brainless
Or just plain stupid
He said.

I ditched the guy
Lest I'd be thought of as mad
And went on smiling.

Inure

INURE

–verb (used with object)
1. to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.; toughen or harden; habituate (usually followed by “to”).
–verb (used without object)
2. to come into use; take or have effect.
3.to become beneficial or advantageous.























Inured as he might be
To city life and its challenges
The loss of a limb
Still less painful
Than scorn
Or worse
Pity

Taciturn

TACITURN

–adj.
1. inclined to silence; reserved in speech; reluctant to join in conversation.
2. dour, stern, and silent in expression and manner.






















Girls (and boys)
Had ached to kiss
Those taciturn lips
But recoiled
At the thought of a smile.

Popinjay

POPINJAY

–noun
1. a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter; coxcomb; fop.
2. British Dialect . a woodpecker, esp. the green woodpecker.
3. Archaic . the figure of a parrot usually fixed on a pole and used as a target in archery and gun shooting.
4. Archaic. a parrot.




Green
Parrot
Popinjay.
Disapproving
Song

Original parrot picture, courtesy of Pareerica

Recumbent

RECUMBENT

–adj.
1. lying down; reclining; leaning.
2. inactive; idle.
3. Zoology, Botany. noting a part that leans or reposes upon its surface of origin.
–noun
4. a recumbent person, animal, plant, etc.



Recumbent feast of stone
For the long time dead
Plate in hand, begging for food
Small talk frozen on lips.

Smithereens

SMITHEREENS

–noun (plural)
small pieces; bits



Time, that Rogue of Cups
Tipsy fool bully
Gyrating until...
Dizzying until...
The clock stops your heart
Your empty cup falls
Smashed to smithereens
Seconds flying off,
Untimely shards
Piercing straight through hearts.


The background picture is copyright of Willow of Willow Manor, who has put it forth as a writing prompt.
Join the writing fun at Magpie Tales.

Macaroni

MACARONI

-noun
1. Pasta in any of various hollow shapes, especially short curved tubes.
2.
a. A well-travelled young Englishman of the 18th and 19th centuries who affected foreign customs and manners.
b. A fop.






















Spaghetti gurus
Express a distaste for fops
And macaronis

Obdurate

OBDURATE

-adj.
1.Stubborn: not easily moved.
2. Hard-hearted: resistant to emotions.






















A
Fig
Planted
Defiant
An obdurate plant
Refusing to yield or wither
To obey the diktats of weather or mankind
Showing its babies to the wind
Threat to the future
Or delight
Should you
Eat
Them.

Lummox

LUMMOX

–noun
Informal.
a clumsy, stupid person.























Such a luminous lummox,
Just meant to flummox;
Purrs exchanged for food, shelter.

Propensity

PROPENSITY

–noun
1.a natural inclination or tendency
2.Obsolete. favourable disposition or partiality.



She was known to have
A propensity for sloth
And love for cushions
But what can a kitty do
But dream up the universe?

Prevenient

PREVENIENT

- adj.
1. Coming before; preceding.
2. Expectant; anticipatory.



Prevenient times
Waiting for tempests or calm
A first rain drop falls.

Supercilious

SUPERCILIOUS

–adj.
haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.






















Supercilious cats
Object to being disturbed
Minions banned from sight

Persiflage

PERSIFLAGE

–noun
1. light, bantering talk or writing.
2. a frivolous or flippant style of treating a subject.



Heated discussions
About what can be considered
- Allowed -
As being ironic or not
Go beyond your basic persiflage,
YET
Nobody mentions the Spanish Inquisition.


Painting of Sixtus IV and Tomàs de Torquemada by Jean Paul Laurens

Hug

HUG

–verb (used with object)
1. to clasp tightly in the arms, especially with affection; embrace.
2. to cling firmly or fondly to; cherish.
3. to keep close to, as in sailing, walking, or in moving along or alongside of.
–verb (used without object)
4. to cling together; lie close.
–noun
5. a tight clasp with the arms; embrace.























Hugging shadows
For fear they'll fly away,
Remembering the scents,
The play of light on that special day
Forgetting the voice.