Ostensible

OSTENSIBLE

–adj.
1. outwardly appearing as such; professed; pretended.
2. apparent, evident, or conspicuous



Battered poppy
In a sea of green
Ostensible

Fertile

FERTILE

–adj.
1. bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops, etc., abundantly; prolific.
2. bearing or capable of bearing offspring.
3. abundantly productive.
4. producing an abundance (usually followed by “of” or “in” ).
5. conducive to productiveness.
6. Biology .
a. fertilized, as an egg or ovum; fecundated.
b. capable of growth or development, as seeds or eggs.
7. Botany .
a. capable of producing sexual reproductive structures.
b. capable of causing fertilization, as an anther with fully developed pollen.
c. having spore-bearing organs, as a frond.
8. Physics . (of a nuclide) capable of being transmuted into a fissile nuclide by irradiation with neutrons: Uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile nuclides.
9. produced in abundance.























Fertile pods
Dispensing future dreams.
The cat turns over.

Étoile

ÉTOILE

-noun
1. a star or something shaped like a star.
2. prima ballerina.



She spins and turns
Flammable ballerina
So graceful in every stance
Of this intimate public drama
She spins and turns
Burnt by the lust of admirers
The heat in their eyes
Magma on their minds
She spins and turns
Slowly becoming étoile
Bright against the ballet night.


The picture is copyright Keith Carter and has been proposed as prompt for the Poetry Train by Terresa at Chocolate Chip Waffle.

Swain

SWAIN

–noun
1. a male admirer or lover.
2. a country lad.
3. a country gallant.




The swain swept her off her feet
Leaving her shoes and modesty behind
The swine left her standing at the altar
With a ready cocked gun.


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.

Accrete

ACCRETE

-verb tr., intr.
To grow gradually by accumulation.























You can rule
Make it compulsory
To look the other way
To bury our head in sand
Wait!
That isn't sand.
Ashes! Ashes! Ashes!
Accreted in the air,
Accreted in strata!
No burying then
Or maybe just our dead
Killed by clouds
Killed by planes
Killed by rules
For economy's sake.


Envisat/MERIS/Miravi background image courtesy of the European Space Agency

Uncial

UNCIAL

–adj.
1. designating, written in, or pertaining to a form of majuscule writing having a curved or rounded shape and used chiefly in Greek and Latin manuscripts from about the 3rd to the 9th century a.d.
–noun
2. an uncial letter.
3. uncial writing.
4. a manuscript written in uncials.



All gilded beauty and ornate uncials
The book beckons from under its glass coffin
A reader’s kiss might wake it up
A loving stroke from fervent hands

Cathec

CATHEC

-verb tr.
To invest mental or emotional energy in an idea, object, or person.






















He'd infuse his wine
With his philosophy
Cathec all his life
Into a single glass
Knowledge laden ruby.

Hypocorism

HYPOCORISM

–noun
1. a pet name.
2. the practice of using a pet name.
3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult.






















Her demeanour attracts
All manners of hypocorism.
She could not care less.

Radical

RADICAL

-adj.
1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.
3. favouring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.
4. forming a basis or foundation.
5. existing inherently in a thing or person.
6. Mathematics .
a. pertaining to or forming a root.
b. denoting or pertaining to the radical sign.
c. (of a function) not capable of being expressed exactly as a ratio of two polynomials (also called irrational)
7. Grammar . of or pertaining to a root.
8. Botany . of or arising from the root or the base of the stem.
–noun
9. a person who holds or follows strong convictions or extreme principles; extremist.
10.a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods.
11.Mathematics .
a. a quantity expressed as a root of another quantity.
b. the set of elements of a ring, some power of which is contained in a given ideal.
c. radical sign: the symbol √ indicating extraction of a root of the quantity that follows it.
12.Chemistry .
a. Group: two or more atoms specifically arranged, as the hydroxyl group, –OH..
b. as in “free radical”: an atom or molecule that bears an unpaired electron and is extremely reactive, capable of engaging in rapid chain reactions that destabilize other molecules and generate many more free radicals: in the body, deactivated by antioxidants, uric acid, and certain enzyme activities.
13.Grammar . root, in particular
a. a morpheme that underlies an inflectional or derivational paradigm
b. such a form reconstructed for a parent language.
14.(in Chinese writing) one of 214 ideographic elements used in combination with phonetics to form thousands of different characters.























You like to focus
On hooligans,
Anarchists
Rioting,
Ravaging your body,
Breaking havoc:
Free radicals.
Against that unlawful lot
Only one cure:
Anti-oxydants!
Let them eat cake!
(and not your cells)
Let them eat cake!
Green tea cake.

Clastic

CLASTIC

–adj.
1. Biology . breaking up into fragments or separate portions; dividing into parts.
2. pertaining to an anatomical model made up of detachable pieces.
3. Geology. noting or pertaining to rock or rocks composed of fragments or particles of older rocks or previously existing solid matter; fragmental.






















Going clastic
Cells breaking up
Day after day
Age

Tephra

TEPHRA

–noun ( used with a plural verb)
Clastic volcanic material, as scoria, dust, etc., ejected during an eruption.






















Tephra catching a ride
On the wings of winds
Annoying planes.

Envisat view of the Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano tephra, courtesy of the European Space Agency

Asseverate

ASSEVERATE

-verb tr.
To affirm solemnly.



The old warehouse walls
Asseverate time passing,
The counting of days.

Poke

POKE

–verb (used with object)
1. to prod or push, especially with something narrow or pointed, as a finger, elbow, stick, etc.
2. to make (a hole, one's way, etc.) by or as by prodding or pushing.
3. to thrust or push.
4. to force, drive, or stir by or as by pushing or thrusting.
5. to thrust obtrusively.
–verb (used without object)
6. to make a pushing or thrusting movement with the finger, a stick, etc.
7. to extend or project (often followed by "out").
8. to thrust oneself obtrusively.
9. to search curiously; pry (often followed by “around” or “about”).
10.to go or proceed in a slow or aimless way (often followed by “along”).
–noun
11.a thrust or push.
12.Informal . a slow or dawdling person; slowpoke.

–noun
1. Chiefly Midland U.S. and Scot. . a bag or sack, especially a small one.
2. a wallet or purse.
3. Archaic . a pocket.

–noun
1. a projecting brim at the front of a bonnet, framing the face.
2. Also called poke bonnet. a bonnet or hat with such a brim.



Don’t poke me!
Said Amor
But Psyche would not listen
So he fled.
from “Amor and Psyche, the Alternative Story”)

Scarper

SCARPER

-verb intr.
To flee, especially without paying one's bills.






















When my husband returned last night
Hermes had to scarper so quickly
That he left a foot in the courtyard.
Most people might leave a shoe
Or an imprint in the tulip bed
It takes a god to abandon a limb.
We made a fountain out of it.

Frowsy

FROWSY

-adj.
1 : musty, stale
2 : having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance



Despite its
Fresh look
The oil proved frowsy
Ripe with rot
And mouldy
From disuse.

Milquetoast

MILQUETOAST

–noun (sometimes initial capital letter)
a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated























The proffered wine
On tasting, proved to be
Nothing more than
A mere milquetoast
Easily overpowered
By all sorts of flavours
That had little to do
With its alleged qualities.

Vellicate

VELLICATE

-verb tr., intr.
1. To twitch or to cause to twitch.
2. To pluck, nip, irritate, etc.



Modern use of split infinitives
Would cause her to vellicate
Cracking her tombstone
A little deeper each time
While we blamed earthquakes.

Recluse

RECLUSE

noun
1. a person who lives in seclusion or apart from society, often for religious meditation.
2. Also, incluse. a religious voluntary immured in a cave, hut, or the like, or one remaining within a cell for life.
–adj.
3. shut off or apart from the world; living in seclusion, often for religious reasons.
4. characterized by seclusion; solitary.






















Guilty woman,
Lost in the forest,
Seduced by a god;
Despite her vows
And better sense.
That guilty woman,
Condemned to be recluse;
We sing of her sons,
Of their fight
Of the mighty city,
Founded on blood.
But everyone forgets
The woman
The woman who loved
When it was forbidden
The woman who was closed
Young and alive into a cell
And forgotten.

Batten

BATTEN

-verb
1. To fatten or to grow fat; to thrive and prosper at another's expense.
2. To fasten or secure using battens.
-noun
A long strip of wood, metal, or plastic used for strengthening something.






















Tipsy fragile god
In dire need of battens
Perennial marble.

Spiracle

SPIRACLE

–noun
1. a breathing hole; an opening by which a confined space has communication with the outer air; air hole.
2. Zoology .
a. an aperture or orifice through which air or water passes in the act of respiration, as the blowhole of a cetacean.
b. an opening in the head of sharks and rays through which water is drawn and passed over gills.
c. one of the external orifices of the tracheal respiratory system of certain invertebrates, usually on the sides of the body.



A spirited spiracle
Tells of an Etruscan tale
Or of someone's sense of humour.