Words for the week 46

Michael pulled the rope, watching the basha to which it was tied pulled taunt as a sail, it’s plasticky side reflecting the purple clouds of the approaching storm. He fed the end through the loop and cranked in the last of the slack. The asperity in the course rope should be enough to hold the knot in place. The tree branch they were using for the central rib creaked as Jonah did the same on the other side.
“Is that basha ready yet?” The colonel shouted from across the fire with even more asperity than he generally displayed. The canon-fire booming of the thunder seemed to be upsetting him.
Michael stepped back to survey their work. The spine of the makeshift shelter curved like an ogive in a cathedral, an elegant shape that seemed to blend into their surroundings. They should think about using this design in the future when they were trying to avoid enemy eyes instead of monsoon rain.
A couple of the herd boys and found and dragged over some thick tree branches, which they were positioning in apposition to the shelter to give the tarp more support. They pressed away from the lines of the shelter like pilasters, and Michael suspected that they would add about as much structural integrity if the wind picked up.
Lightning illuminated their camp. This storm was already showing an alarming asperity. He felt sorry for the indigent herdboys, who did not have the funds to buy tents of their own and who the colonel would not allow to shelter with the men. Jonah had talked a few of the more soft-hearted ones into donating their spare blankets, a pointless act of expiation in Michael’s eyes.
Later, he lay trying unsuccessfully to press the bombast back through a hole in the ogive end of his pillow. Jonah, in a strangely apposite turn of events was reciting verses from the bible with a bombastic voice that was failing to drown out the hammering of water on the thin shell of their tent. It was going to be a long night.

Definitions

Basha – a tarpaulin or plastic waterproof sheet OR
a makeshift shelter made from said sheet.

Bombast – soft fibrous material sued as stuffing or padding OR
language (high-souding words) above the dignity of the occasion (pompous, ostentatious speaking / writing).

Apposite – strikingly appropriate or relevant, well suited to the circumstances or in relations to something OR
positioned as rest in respect to another (apposition) OR
related / homologous

Indigent – poor, destitute, in need

Expiation – an act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing

Pilaster – a rectangular column that projects partially from the wall to which its attached. Mostly for decoration

Asperity – being harsh or severe in speaking or behaving to others (acerbity) OR
being difficult or unpleasant to experience OR
having a rough or uneven surface OR
something that is harsh or difficult to endure

Ogive – A gothic pointed arch or a rib of a gothic vault OR
the pointed, curved nose of a bullet, missile or rocket.