Redolent

fragrant; suggestive or evocative (adj)

[under construction]

Red sat on the proch as he had sat every morning since he could sit upright. He wore the blue plaid shirt and overalls his mother dressed him in and a clean white undershirt with clean white breifs underneath the overalls. His face, as it had been since he entered the world through the drug-abused gates of his mother's legs twentysomething years ago, was crumpled into itself. Every facial muscle stretched or flexed or tensed towards his nose which was pristinely tanned and the only well-built structure on his face. His eyes were shit tight and his eyebrows wrinkled in and his mouth screwed up upwards and his cheeks were set square from a perpetually clamped jaw. All lines connected and pointed to the olfactory center of his face.
His mother, his caretaker, his only companion, came outo n the porch with a plate of bacon, eggs, and grits and Red's hands went flying toward the food, his face unchanging except an accented noise from his nasal inhalations raking against his sinuses.
"Alright, alright, Reddy, hold on," and she dodged his flying fingers to tuck in a hankerchief to catch the food that he would inevitably spill on himself.
"You want to look good for your visitor today, don't you?"
Red couldn't reply. He could only swing his hands around the wafting prefume of the food. His mother brought it to his face and he began to grasp the good and stuff it into his mouth, chewing with thell athose tensed muslces, sucking in air through that perfect as he ate. Pieces of yellow egg landed on the hankerchief, chips of burnt bacon clicked on the wood floor of their little house.
When the plat was almost cleaned off completely a car drove up the dusty path kicking pebbles and dirt up from its tires. The olive sedan parked in front of hte porch. A young, attractive woman with dirty blond hair and turqoise blue eyes exited the car and closed the door and pressed a black button on her key chain so the car beeped. She carried a notebook and pen in her hand as she approached the porch.
"Miss Melly?" Red's mother asked the young woman.
"Hi Mrs. Gretchen, how are you today?"
"Fine, thank you."
Melly walked up the steps of the porch and Red's mother walked to her, seemingly trying to keep her away from her son. They stood several feet away from Red, but Melly looked over Red's mother's shoulder and addressed Red anyway.
"I'm very excited to talk to you today, Red," she walked forward as she spoke and continued to Red's mother, "You know it's so rare to find a case like Red's--he could really help us answer a lot of questions about how much humans rely on smell and pheromonal--"
Red's mother looked away from Melly with a confused face. The scientist caught herself in her scientific excitement and decided to stop talking. They both looked down at Red, who was sitting in his chair. When the two of them were closer to Red his hands began waving through the air. Innocuously at first, but their movements became more desparate and almost violent as they got nearer to him. By the time Melly and his mother were standing in conversation range his hands were flying like they were swatting dangerous bugs.
Then one of the hands found Melly's forearm and squeezed it and pulled the young woman toward Red, who used her weight to help lift himself to a standing position. Another hand found her other arm and Red wrapped himself around Melly and hugged her forcibly.
"Red, no!" his mother yelled.
But he didn't stop, he stoof up, the dirty and egg-ridden hankerchief fell to the porch floor and he brought the young scientist to his face and he pressed his nose into her neck with strong lunges, sniffing her everywhere he could and Melly felt an awkward protrusion protruding from the middle of the man who could only smell and she kicked the erection and the hands released her and she pulled herself away. Then she took a breath, leaning on a post of their porch, looked at Red's mother, and opened her notebook to make a note of something.

Die

part of a machine that punches and shapes holes (n)

God and Death were drinking jasmine tea at a teahouse in Heaven and Death was reading the Bible, holding his steaming tea in one hand the Good Book in the other.
Death chuckled at something.
"What?" God asked.
"Nothing," Death said, still laughing.
"Tell me."
"Naw, it's nothing, really."
"It's not nothing," God insisted, "it has to be something if you're laughing at it."
Death chuckled under his breath and tried to keep it down in his throat. He took a breath to collect himself and closed the Book and let his hand hang over the side of the plush teahouse chair. He took a sip from his tea.
"It's just that, you created them in your image, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"And you can't die, right? I mean, you're immortal."
"Uh huh, yeah, what about it?"
"I just thought of this one guy I saw recently. He worked at a big hyrdoelectric dam making sure these huge pistons pumped up and down. Real nice guy. Had a family and a kid and everything. And I guess he was looking at a picture of his son and--because he was leaning forward and looking down at the picture--his head got caught in one of these this big pistons and the thing just smashed his head to little bits all over the place."
God took a sip of his tea.
"So?" he asked.
"So, nothing. I was just reading you Book here again and I remembered this man and I'm finding it all terribly funny all of a sudden."
God shook his head and brought his mug to his face.
"You always did have a morbid sense of humor," he said.

August

majestic (adj)

It was said that a certain king
only went out among his people
in the summer
because he thought that
only in times of overwhelming heat
was it suitable for him to be seen.

Alloy

to commingle; debase by mixing with something inferior (v)

Al was nervous about meeting Annie's father. The old man had bought, managed, and sold three successful alcohol corporations and became a reclusive billionaire in a mansion that had been in Annie's Protestant lineage for generations. Being unemployed, Catholic, and engaged to Annie didn't help Al's nerves.
The three of them ate dinner in the great dining room of the mansion where signs from liquor companies from recent and distant history hung next to crosses and stuffed elk heads and bear claws and a series of old painted portraits that included a likeness of Luther.
Al felt a growing need to say something after the salad portion of the dinner passed without conversation.
"So, Mr. Ferguson, may I ask you what you're secret is...I mean, with your wild success as a businessman, you must have some ideas about success or achieving one's goals?"
Annie's eyes widened at Al and she looked horrified at the reality of this broach and watched as her pale father, who was wearing a white undershirt and a blue bathrobe and large brown-rimmed glasses, asked Al,
"Wild?"
"Y-yes," Al stammered, "I mean, your success and all..."
"Hmph," Annie's father said, "wild."
Then a long silence sat among them, punctuated only by the clicking of soup spoons and intermittent slurping.
"If you really want to know I put spiced water in the whiskey and all the goddamn rest of it,"Annie's father broke the quiet, "Halved production costs and the drunk fools couldn't tell the difference and we kept prices where they were and tripled revenue."
Al nodded and made some sort of noise that was supposed to indicate his interest. Then the old man rose from his chair, making it clear that he wasn't wearing pants, and he shuffled over to Al's side and stood over Al and raised his old fist in air and brought it down in a striking motion on Al's right hand, which was laying flat and unprotected on the table.
Annie gasped. Al felt a slight shock of pain.
Annie's father had stabbed his son-in-law-to-be with a little medical needle and the old man's eyes squinted at the trickle of blood that peeped through the rupture in Al's skin.
"You're goddamn blood is red," he said. Then he looked over at Annie and then up at all his liquor signs and at the crosses and at the stuffed elk heads and at Luther and then back at Al, who was holding his stabbed hand in a napkin.
"The whole damn world's mixed up if you ask me," said Annie's father as he shuffled back to begin the main course.

Surfeit

excess, overindulgence (v)

I knew a surfer that wanted all the sun
he could get and get as tan as he could get
so he spent all his time surfing and tanning
and then all the melanin in his skin burned up
and the doctors told him he couldn't be in sunlight
unless he was in a plastic bubble that refracted it
so my friend the surfer went surfing in his bubble
and sat out in the sun after the waves rolled him in.

Minatory

Menacing, threatening (adj)

A minataur went to an analyst that specialized
in the psychoses of mythical creatures
and laid down on the analyst's couch
and said, "I hate that everyone hates me,"
and the analyst said,
"this is a common problem for characters
who are created by humans to be a certain way
and then start to ask why
they were made the way they were made--
unfortunately, you must continue
to be as you were made to be..."
And the minataur turned around to the analyst
and growled and barked but caught himself
and he looked down at his goat legs
and his hairy hands
and his long nails
and he looked up at the analyst
who was a human being
and the analyst shrugged as if to apologize
and the minataur thought this was
the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen.

Parry

To block or evade (v)

Barry didn't dally
to parry larry
who was angry
when he married sally.

Meretricious

Showy, taudry (adj)

Cheryle the suburban meter maid
had such long and fake and painted fingernails
that she couldn't write parking tickets
and all the people
with the Benzes and Beamers and Volvos
and everything
that parked everywhere
gave her gift certificates to
manicurists every christmas
and the cards they wrote her had
smiley faces and exclamation marks
and were signed with the word "love."

Maculate

Splotchy or marked (adj)

There was once a perfectionist trucker
who wouldn't buy a new rig until he found
the right one
and one time he was test-driving a Mac
and saw a splotch on the dash
and pulled the truck over
out of disgust
and felt so strongly about the splotch
that he walked across the highway
and back to the dealership
and when he got back to his own truck
he had dust from the road all over him but
he felt clean.

Nugatory

Trifling, inconsequential

Whenever I see a candy bar
and it's in a shiny shiny wrapper
I think about
how pointless some of my desires are
and how much a free market cares
about them.

Profligate

recklessly extravagant, wasteful (adj)

Benjamin spent a year's pay
on the gate to his driveway
so he could only afford to live
in a small trailer.

Flout

To demonstrate contempt for, as in a rule of convention (v)

Gabby and her mom were in the kitchen
and Gabby's mom said, "Girls are supposed to
play the flute, not the drums."
So Gabby took her flute out
and put it together
and then grabbed a pan
and hit her flute against the pan
with a rhythm anyone would clap to.

Impugn

To attack or assail verbally, to censure (v)

One time when I was in first grade
I picked my nose and ate it
and Mrs. Saunders saw me do it
and said, in a voice that I can still hear,
"David, that is deeeeeeeesgusting,
get a tissue and cover your face--
I never want to see that again."

Importune

To ask incessantly, to nag (v)

Please please please please please
please please please please
please please please
please please
please
don't lie to us.

Impute

To attribute cause or source (adj)

A boy drops an empty soda can on the ground
because he doesn't care about cans or the ground
and then there's an earthquake
and people on the street get knocked over
and the street lights
and stop lights
and garbage cans
and then the ground stops shaking
and the boy looks around
and sees people and garbage on the ground
and he sees the empty soda can he dropped
and he picks it up
and then he picks up a garbage can
and throws away the empty soda can
and he walks home
and helps pick as many people up
on the way
as he can
and he apologizes to each one as he offers them
his hand.

Expiate

To atone or make amends (v)

I ripped a hole in your favorite shirt
sorry
I was angry because your dog shat on my bed
and it is unable to comprehend what it means to be
sorry.

I sewed the hole up the best I could
but the stitching is piss poor and
sorry.

Eschew

To shun or avoid (v)

A circle of cows graze
in each other's company
and they all eat and chew
and swallow facing one another
and


one


cow
stands outside the group
and faces the other way
and its eyes are constantly trying
to see what the other group is doing.

Excoriate

To censure scathingly (v.)

I heard of a psychology teacher
at a private high school
that duct-taped the mouths
of the students that scored
lower than 75% on his exams
and forced them to wear the tape
until they improved
because he said he didn't want
their average ideas
infecting his discussions.

Egress

exit (n)

I went to a taxidermist's shop
because my grandmother wanted her cat to be
stuffed and made into a statue
and I was waiting and I noticed a stuffed egret
hanging above the door of the shop
and the taxidermist who finally took my order
and was sitting at the cash register with my grandmother's cat
made bird noises while was I looking at the stuffed egret
and smiled at me when I turned to catch him
doing this
and that was when I decided to leave.

Abscond

to go or sneak away (v)

If a war started between pastries
then, being a pacifist,
I would probably dress up like a scone
and abscond.

Descry

Discriminate, discern (v)

I know a single father
that only makes decisions
based on what
doesn't make his baby cry.

Until he told me this
I had great respect for him
because it seemed to me like
he was doing everything right.

Inured

Used to accepting something undesirable (adj)

Julie and Jonie cut open a cadaver
for homework at med school
and they played rock-paper-scissors
for hemispheres
and julie lost.
She accepted this
and went down to the feet
and walked up to the middle
thinking the worst would be best to do first
and she she cut open the penis of the man
who had donated his body to science
and after some examination she said, "Damn,
that sucks."
Jonie asked, "What?"
Julie said,
"This guy's seminal vein is exposed to nerves."
"So?"Jonie asked.
"So every time he came he probably felt
like he was passing a kidney stone or something."
"Damn," Jonie agreed.

Cavil/ Captious

To criticize sarcastically without good reason (v.)/(adj.)

VI.
And I forget to mention
that I've been drinking
and that I'm riding my bike
drunk
and watching the scene
and taking it in
to come home and write about it--

and the light turns green
and I start to pedal uphill towards my house
and I swerve out of the way as a cab passes
and I hear old men laughing at me
and there's a fat pair of shoulders
in the back of the cab that passes me
with a blazered arm around them
and they seem warm
and it is dark
and we all go uphill together
toward our houses.

Cachinnate

to laugh (v.)

V.
People travel in groups around them
the crying girl and her man
some in cars going slowly
some in groups of two or five or six
and on the curbs
under awnings of bars
old homeless men sit where they've been sitting
since the time when the sun was out
and the night before that, etc,
and they cackle holding paper bags
filled with bottles
filled with the bane of everyone's breath here--

they laugh especially hard
when the girl enters the cab
with the man with the smile
because the old homeless men know them
and everyone else that travels around them
because the old homeless men know
that all these people think
they're going somewhere.

Baleful

willing, evil (adj.)

IV.
There's a grin on her date's face
it is shaved and sweaty and clean
and it persists as he stands there
rubbing the crying girl's back.
It is pointed up like the lapels of his
blazer
it is baleful
like the width of his neck
and the hair that creeps up it
and reaches out of his collar.

He calls the cab
and pushes her head down into it
and shuts the door
and tells the cabbie where to go.

Bilge

The protrusion of a casket or grave (n.)

III.
The young woman has a round stomach
that I can see bulging out of the middle
of her dress
but it seems more like a bilge
than a bulge
because she is crying
and drunk
and to me she is seeing
truly
blankly
in a way she won't remember
what life is like
at this hour,
and she ducks into a cab with the man
and her cab driver drives
to a place she's never been--

though she knew
when she went out she'd end
up there eventually.

Beatify

To make saintly (v.)

II.
I bike past a corner where there are
many bars
and it is late
which means it's early in the morning
and standing on the corner is a girl
a young woman
and she is bedizened, shoulders and chest bare
crying
clutching herself
drunk
and a man stands with his hand
rubbering her back
as they wait for a cab,
and it's like she's the saint
of this hour of the day
in this kind of place:
sad
with make up on her face
delirious
and getting into a cab with a man
just to find some warmth
for her bare shoulders.

Bedizen

to adorn cheaply (v.)

I.
In places where people party
drink, dance, etc,
the women wear make up
and the men dress the same
and the women reveal their skins
and the men differ only in face.

Paean

prayer of thanksgiving (n.)

Oh, that I have earlobes,
things so mushy and pointless
that I don't have to worry about them
breaking or snapping or anything--

thank you.

Oh, that I can rub the earlobes of others
between my thumb and forefinger
and squeeze and say this paean
to them as they smile at me--

thank you.

Supplant

take over, replace (v.)

It's funny to me when people say
that plants take over other plants
or yards or forests or something
as if plants conquer
as if one plant thinks
it's better than other plants
and asserts itself accordingly--

but I guess that's just another reason
why I think people are so funny.

Apotheosis

prayer, recognition of deity (n.)

When some people shop for shoes
they genuflect down
when they try them on
and I've seen some who--
after they see that the shoes fit
and after they see that they look good--
clasp their hands as they look
down
at their feet
in shoe apotheosis.

Adumbrate

To sketchily predict (v.)

People think that painters and poets
and people like that can predict the future
but we're just just listening to ourselves
with a feeling that people are pretty

much the same

and so what we make ends up
being about human beings
and also ends up pretty

open to interpretation

and people feel good when they see it
because they think
we're adumbrating eventhough they're
the ones adumbrating--or maybe

we're all adumbrating?

Accrete

To build, gather together (v.)

One ant brings a piece of sand
and lays it down
and then other ants do this
and then they live in the pile together.

One cell becomes cancerous
and begins to cry proteins
and then other cells come to it
and then they all cry proteins together.

One family finds a spot on a river
and another comes to trade with them
and then other families trade there, too
and then they make a city on the river together.

Acarpous

Worn, well-used (adj)

Roberto farmed his family's land for 65 years
and his father farmed it for 62 years before that
and his father's father farmed it for 70 years before that
etc.

And each man in Roberto's family took a wife
and Roberto's wife had 10 children
and Roberto's mother had 7 children
and Roberto's father's father's wife had 15 children
etc.

And some nights, Roberto's wife
and his father's wife
and his father's father's wife
have tea parties in the fields
because they feel like they belong there
fated, acarpous, farmed,
etc.

Abscisson

The removal of something (n.)

"When teachers tell you
to hold scissors with the blades down
you should listen
because I drool all the time through my cheek
and I'm missing a nostril
and all I wanted to do was make
snowflake cutouts."

Abrogate

To cancel or repeal or order to put down, by an authority (v.)

In the middle of a battle during World War III
God comes down from the Heavens and declares:
"Anyone that still has
a gun in their hand
after I count to five
is so going to hell!"

And the soldiers, generals, lieutants, corporals,
etc,
all looked at one another
and put their guns down
and cancelled the orders for missiles,
etc;
everyone feeling properly abrogated.

Abjure

Refuse (v.)

A lawyer defends a prostitute
and at the end of her trial
after his closing statements
she leans over and offers him something
and the lawyer raises his hand
and abjures, shaking his head
trying to focus on the prosecution.