fother

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

fother (I see it pronounced both like "father" and like "feather")
noun. 1. a cartload or large quantity
  2. (or fodder) an old unit of weight for lead, lime, coal, etc.
verb, transitive.  1. to cover (a sail) with oakum, rope, yarn, etc., for placing over and stopping a leak in a ship.
  2. to stop (a leak) with a sail prepared in this way, by allowing the pressure of water to force it into the crack.

Etymology
In my dictionary, the noun form is listed as coming from Old English fother.
The verb form as listed as possibly coming from Middle Dutch voederen (to feed).


Ease

This is wrong:  I'm happy, serene.
Floating a bouyant house in a carnage of reminders,
Half-blind to eerie little lights, like souls on an ocean,
Or truths we are afraid to know.
Every turn of my head brings new guilt into view.
Every well-cooked meal turns a bit on the fork;
Fish weigh heavy now.
Every solid wall is a dear guilty pleasure,
Denying cracks:  slivered scenes of lives shaken to soaking debris,
Only fear left intact.
Easily anyone,
Easily loved ones,
Easily whole worlds abandoned in ruin.
I fother the widening gap in my happiness,
Packing debris against news-torn wounds
With criminal success.


It's likely I won't be posting a word next Sunday - busy with family stuff.