Perspicacious

is one of those words that
I know how to spell but
I’m not sure how to say.
I don’t mean words like

Shrewsbury or scone.
Or jargon words like ‘chthonic’,
‘solipsism’ or the name
of that drug I take for my acid

reflux.

I mean words such as ‘palimpsest’
or ‘chiaroscuro’ or like ‘interstices’
which, I think, refers to
the spaces between things. Words

like ‘paroxysm’ that I’ve got
a vague understanding of and feel
as if it’d be good to taste
on my tongue. Words like ‘hiraeth’. Like

‘love’.