abandon
Playing freeze tag by the train stop, the kids slither onto the platform and sprint across grassy lots. They laugh and scream and occasionally curse.
balance
The cherry tree holds light and shadow between its branches in perfect stillness.
gaiety
It isn't an orchid show, it's a masquerade ball. Each orchid, a prince, a duke, an empress, wears a vibrant mask and sways to music in the garden.
grate
His face is pink and stubbled, and his laugh has as much joy as he can force into it.
perianth
The branches are weighed down by a mass of magnolia blossoms. Soon the blossoms will fall to the ground and rot, but now they're still in their full flush, a decadent pink, inviting people to draw them aside as a curtain and seek privacy.
rippling
Daffodils streaming down a rocky hill.
swept
The sound of the waterfall washes everything away, all the noise in our heads.
