VOCABULARY LIST: UPPER INTERMEDIATE Poem by Jane Gibian

wrist: the part of the arm between the forearm and hand

delicate: fine in texture or quality, like most of your clothing; sensitive, requiring great care or caution; your mysterious pieces of underwear — do not have the water too hot for your delicates

reap, harvest: to cut grain with a sickle or a machine; to get as a return — to reap large profits; when will I reap what I have sown; gathering of crops, a crop of yield

telescope: an optical instrument for making distant objects appear nearer and larger, the way you do for me; to slide together, or into something else, in the manner of the tubes of a jointed telescope; how you make stories from the newspaper bigger and more alive

bracelet: an ornamental band; circles your delicate wrist; colloq. a handcuff

narcotic: having the power to produce narcosis; any of a class of substances that blunt the senses, relieving pain, and in large quantities producing complete insensibility, often used habitually to satisfy morbid appetite; I would blunt my hungry senses if I could; am I too morbid

ingredient: something that enters as an element into a mixture; goes into our cooking, goes into our longing — the ingredients of a cake

telepathy: communication between one mind and another by means other than the normal use of the senses

invent: to invent a machine; to produce or create with the imagination — to invent a story; to make up or fabricate as something merely fictitious or false; why does it feel like you are inventing excuses

relic: a surviving memorial of something past; an object having interest by reason of its age; the body part or some personal memorial of a saint or other sacred person, preserved as worthy of veneration, like the way I carry your bracelet with me, a handcuff to my pain

reliable: that may be relied on, trustworthy — reliable sources of information

rehearse: to perform (a play, part, piece of music etc) in private by way of practice before a public performance; everything till now has been only a rehearsal

yield: to give a return, as for labour expended; to surrender or submit