Week in Seven Words #580

This covers the week of 2/28/21 - 3/6/21.

compulsions

We're caught in traps of compulsive behavior – web surfing, phone scrolling, screen watching.

deceptively

What looks like ice on the lake is only the glare of sunlight.

enlarged

The eyes always come out too large in the drawings. Large, placid ellipses.

held

His body shakes with his need to talk, to have someone listen.

liquefy

A land melting into mud and puddles that seem like ponds.

retrospect

Months from now, I sense this worry will seem superficial, a distraction from larger problems.

warmth

A golden retriever finds us as we sit shoulder-to-shoulder on the sunlit bench.

Week in Seven Words #376

banquet
The park is a narrow strip of grass by the river. Mostly, people pass through it on bikes or jogging with their dogs, but few linger. One guy though has laid out bowls of food for pigeons and stray cats. The pigeons have appeared, but not the cats. They'll come, he says.

bursting
Jets of water from the firefighters' hoses form successive arcs in the sunlight. (There's no sign of a current or recent fire. Maybe it's a test of hose functioning or a training session.)

directions
They're the kind of teens that would be portrayed in the media as troubled or wild. They're polite and give us precise directions that help us find our way through a neighborhood hit by unexpected street closings.

examination
Her spine curves along the underside of the boulder as she searches for insects in the grass.

guzzle
The river looks like Turkish coffee, and the bridges are the open mouths drinking it.

noiseless
Barbed wire loops along the stone walls that enclose the drug rehab facility. The building is an old stone structure with narrow windows, the shades drawn on most. There's silence from the yard behind the wall.

repurpose
By the rail yard, there's a broken water fountain. Grass springs out of its nozzle.