artifacts
The clouds look like archaeological findings: pottery shards and splintered spears.
carbs
Enticed by the display of fat, creamy desserts, most of them crowd into the bakery. There's no room inside for them to eat, so they savor their glistening cakes and donuts by the curb. At a convenience store on the same block, I buy an adequate granola bar.
insisting
There's so much in her life that's out of control and wildly unfair, so she finds little ways to try to reclaim power. These efforts can make her appear fussy or ungenerous.
opened
I take a photo of a couple of Minions characters posed on a front lawn, and I send it to him so that he can show it to his son. He replies to my text, and we begin a soul-baring conversation, the kind I wouldn't have expected to start with a Minions photo.
rickety
The atrium is our way station on a windy evening. We're surrounded by men mostly; they're reading newspapers or resting their eyes. When we set our salads on one of the metal tables, it shivers, as if unaccustomed to any weight.
sways
One homeowner has set up speakers on his lawn to play a jazzy version of Schubert's Ave Maria, something a fallen angel would listen to at a blues club over a Bloody Mary.
wended
The train has gone above ground. In the faint, peach-colored light of early evening, it skims past rows of old houses. A languid peace has settled over me in the nearly empty car. I could watch the rooftops slide by for an hour without feeling impatient.
Showing posts with label clouds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clouds. Show all posts
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Monday, April 25, 2016
Week in Seven Words #287
arcana
He's hunched in the shadows with a book spread open on his palm. It's only a textbook, but he looks like a conjurer.
belying
"I love my job," he says, with a dejected expression.
enliven
They've turned the broken corners of the porch into a garden. Missing boards are where flowers nestle now. Plants obscure the splintered railings. A rainbow windsock trails against the chipped paint.
flora
Beneath the stains of black mold, there's a pattern of flowers. On each colorful tile, a different flower: foxglove, pansy, rose.
ingestion
The blue-gray water and settling clouds swallow the sun.
objective
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A nice man," he says. "I'm going to be a very nice man."
willfully
One of her ways of trying to get me to change is to say, "No, you can't be like this." Maybe if she waves her hands in a complicated pattern, the spell will take effect.
He's hunched in the shadows with a book spread open on his palm. It's only a textbook, but he looks like a conjurer.
belying
"I love my job," he says, with a dejected expression.
enliven
They've turned the broken corners of the porch into a garden. Missing boards are where flowers nestle now. Plants obscure the splintered railings. A rainbow windsock trails against the chipped paint.
flora
Beneath the stains of black mold, there's a pattern of flowers. On each colorful tile, a different flower: foxglove, pansy, rose.
ingestion
The blue-gray water and settling clouds swallow the sun.
objective
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A nice man," he says. "I'm going to be a very nice man."
willfully
One of her ways of trying to get me to change is to say, "No, you can't be like this." Maybe if she waves her hands in a complicated pattern, the spell will take effect.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Week in Seven Words #258
application
Tentative fingers and solemn attention as she plays a two-handed piece on the keyboard.
finds
Blue shells, brown leaves and a star-shaped badge with a rusted pin.
observance
A hardheaded waitress serves clam chowder to one, fried chicken and a heap of pasta to another. Raises her eyebrow as she hands me my meal, an iced tea.
shifts
His car smells like cake air freshener and newsprint. Magazines slide around under my feet as he drives.
showered
A hole has torn open in the clouds. Light soft as talc sifts down to a bare tree by the water.
trimmed
They can take ten photos of a scene I'm in, and I won't appear in a single one.
variegated
Colonies of salty pools among yellow weeds and striated rock.
Tentative fingers and solemn attention as she plays a two-handed piece on the keyboard.
finds
Blue shells, brown leaves and a star-shaped badge with a rusted pin.
observance
A hardheaded waitress serves clam chowder to one, fried chicken and a heap of pasta to another. Raises her eyebrow as she hands me my meal, an iced tea.
shifts
His car smells like cake air freshener and newsprint. Magazines slide around under my feet as he drives.
showered
A hole has torn open in the clouds. Light soft as talc sifts down to a bare tree by the water.
trimmed
They can take ten photos of a scene I'm in, and I won't appear in a single one.
variegated
Colonies of salty pools among yellow weeds and striated rock.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Week in Seven Words #240
clatter
A sculpture park pockmarked with construction - few differences between the art displayed and the machinery making room for new installations.
distances
Her long-legged stride represents how she's made her way through life.
huddling
Clouds roll in over the river. On the rocks, a sea gull, a soda can, and a bundle of clothes that may have someone in them.
oscillate
The conversation fans out to West Africa, Korean soap opera stars, karaoke, and the way people lock their thoughts into binaries during arguments - two solutions to every problem, two possible opinions in complete opposition.
smudges
Pigeons hold court in the shadows of the bridge.
stock
He barrels out of the convenience store with a shopping cart full of cupcakes and beer. No partying in half-measures.
twinging
Walking a long distance outdoors, especially on uneven ground, gets at muscles that remain dormant during a gym routine.
A sculpture park pockmarked with construction - few differences between the art displayed and the machinery making room for new installations.
distances
Her long-legged stride represents how she's made her way through life.
huddling
Clouds roll in over the river. On the rocks, a sea gull, a soda can, and a bundle of clothes that may have someone in them.
oscillate
The conversation fans out to West Africa, Korean soap opera stars, karaoke, and the way people lock their thoughts into binaries during arguments - two solutions to every problem, two possible opinions in complete opposition.
smudges
Pigeons hold court in the shadows of the bridge.
stock
He barrels out of the convenience store with a shopping cart full of cupcakes and beer. No partying in half-measures.
twinging
Walking a long distance outdoors, especially on uneven ground, gets at muscles that remain dormant during a gym routine.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Week in Seven Words #208 & 209
208
contrary
I tell her that she can sit on the rug, if she likes. She smiles and sits just off the rug, by an inch.
defenses
Kids scale the dirty hills of snow on the curbside. They turn them into ice forts, seared black by the breath of dragons.
promenading
Broken ice parades on the river. One piece looks like a miniature mountain, another like a shallow bowl of soup. A third is bearing birds towards the ocean.
scavenge
Shoppers tear apart a store gone bankrupt.
sophisticate
He's too young to understand the jokes, but old enough to want to laugh along.
sourcing
A small diner. Photos of organically grown vegetables over a grotty ketchup dispenser.
spitting
The beat taps and hisses beneath the melodic line.
contrary
I tell her that she can sit on the rug, if she likes. She smiles and sits just off the rug, by an inch.
defenses
Kids scale the dirty hills of snow on the curbside. They turn them into ice forts, seared black by the breath of dragons.
promenading
Broken ice parades on the river. One piece looks like a miniature mountain, another like a shallow bowl of soup. A third is bearing birds towards the ocean.
scavenge
Shoppers tear apart a store gone bankrupt.
sophisticate
He's too young to understand the jokes, but old enough to want to laugh along.
sourcing
A small diner. Photos of organically grown vegetables over a grotty ketchup dispenser.
spitting
The beat taps and hisses beneath the melodic line.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Week in Seven Words #90
crackling
After lunch we emerge from the sukkah to find that the day has brightened, the trees sketching flame onto mild blue skies.
hospitable
In the main room of their apartment the light will be on all day and all night. The walls are pale and bright, and after the food is cleared away games are laid out on the table. Desserts make the rounds, and I get into an intense conversation that lasts until the early morning hours.
somewhere
It's a quiet street for the most part, but then a car will cut through the dark with its headlights, or a bike will whirr by, and down the block I'll hear one half of a cellphone conversation. Everyone moves with a destination in mind; there are no meanderers just taking in the trees and the muted street lamps. I wonder where they're going. One woman swings a grocery bag between limp fingers and lets herself into a house. She disappears, and the door clicks shut behind her.
strata
Our conversation is a series of cloud patterns: dense and concentrated sometimes, at other times gapping or thinning, spilling sunlight.
tantalizing
A squirrel steals into the sukkah, where an unattended backpack calls to it. Maybe there's food inside, a sandwich half-eaten or a cookie from the cafeteria. The squirrel worries the zipper on one of the smaller pockets before climbing on top of the backpack and nuzzling against the folds and straps.
vigorous
My first glimpse of the holiday evening festivities: people bobbing up and down before a lighted window. As I come closer to the building, I hear a faint roar of singing and stomping.
wide-eyed
Three women are at the center of the dancing circle. Two are holding Torah scrolls, and one is holding a young child. The child has stuck her thumb in her mouth and is staring wide-eyed at the women whirling around her.
After lunch we emerge from the sukkah to find that the day has brightened, the trees sketching flame onto mild blue skies.
hospitable
In the main room of their apartment the light will be on all day and all night. The walls are pale and bright, and after the food is cleared away games are laid out on the table. Desserts make the rounds, and I get into an intense conversation that lasts until the early morning hours.
somewhere
It's a quiet street for the most part, but then a car will cut through the dark with its headlights, or a bike will whirr by, and down the block I'll hear one half of a cellphone conversation. Everyone moves with a destination in mind; there are no meanderers just taking in the trees and the muted street lamps. I wonder where they're going. One woman swings a grocery bag between limp fingers and lets herself into a house. She disappears, and the door clicks shut behind her.
strata
Our conversation is a series of cloud patterns: dense and concentrated sometimes, at other times gapping or thinning, spilling sunlight.
tantalizing
A squirrel steals into the sukkah, where an unattended backpack calls to it. Maybe there's food inside, a sandwich half-eaten or a cookie from the cafeteria. The squirrel worries the zipper on one of the smaller pockets before climbing on top of the backpack and nuzzling against the folds and straps.
vigorous
My first glimpse of the holiday evening festivities: people bobbing up and down before a lighted window. As I come closer to the building, I hear a faint roar of singing and stomping.
wide-eyed
Three women are at the center of the dancing circle. Two are holding Torah scrolls, and one is holding a young child. The child has stuck her thumb in her mouth and is staring wide-eyed at the women whirling around her.
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