Neighborhood Odes: List 2

by Gary Soto
This poetry collection celebrates the ordinary events and everyday objects that make a neighborhood special.

This list covers "Ode to La Llorona"–"Ode to El Guitarrón," or pages 23–45 of the 1992 Harcourt edition.

Here are links to our lists for the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3

Here is a link to our list for Seventh Grade by Gary Soto.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. dusk
    the time of day immediately following sunset
    They say she weeps
    knee-deep in the river,
    the gray of dusk
    a shawl over her head.
  2. smother
    form an impenetrable cover over
    She weeps for her children,
    their smothered faces
    of sleeping angels...
  3. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    They say she will
    point a long finger,
    gnarled root of evilness.
  4. hibachi
    a portable heater that burns charcoal and has a grill for cooking
    I help Mama with
    the aluminum chairs,
    the hibachi, the
    ice chest with
    its treasure of cold
  5. briquet
    a block made from charcoal or coal dust and burned as fuel
    with a pile of briquets
    and bark from
    the eucalyptus
  6. plunge
    immerse briefly into a liquid
    My hand comes up first,
    pink as a starfish,
    then plunges back
    into the ice for cream sodas,
    a winner after all.
  7. abandoned
    forsaken by owner or inhabitants
    I love mi gato,
    porque I found
    him on the fender
    of an abandoned car.
  8. slink
    move or walk stealthily
    At night
    all the other cats
    in the neighborhood
    can see him slink
    around the corner
  9. lap
    take up with the tongue
    We lap up
    his love and
    he laps up his welcome.
    Lap is used figuratively here, since love and welcome are not concrete things that can be tasted.
  10. mural
    a painting that is applied to a wall surface
    I want to show them
    the mural I helped paint.
  11. machete
    a large knife used as a weapon or for cutting vegetation
    In the mural,
    an Aztec warrior
    is standing on a mountain
    with a machete
  12. noble
    having high or elevated character
    and a band of feathers
    on his noble head
  13. boulder
    a large smooth mass of rock detached from a place of origin
    I made the cuts
    of muscle on
    his stomach
    and put a boulder
    of strength in each arm.
  14. bloat
    make swollen
    This paper pig
    bloated with
    candies
  15. stagger
    walk with great difficulty
    I stagger and swing.
    I fall to a knee.
  16. fray
    wear away by rubbing
    We're closer to the country
    than we think,
    as close as a snowy fingertip
    of glove on the table,
    the frayed knot of a robe
    in the closet
  17. musty
    stale and unclean smelling
    the musty sleeve of a sweater
    sleeping with its arm crossed
    in a drawer.
  18. thump
    hit hard with the hand, fist, or some heavy instrument
    I place it
    between my legs
    like a cello
    and thump
    the strings.
  19. breed
    have young (animals) or reproduce (organisms)
    dust falls from
    the ceiling
    where spiders breed
    in shadowy corners
  20. shudder
    tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
    I play so hard
    that our deaf neighbor
    Senor Martinez
    shudders from
    his sleep on the porch
Created on Fri Aug 01 21:53:45 EDT 2014 (updated Thu Aug 30 14:02:42 EDT 2018)

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