the cornice

the building parts its hair where wall becomes ceiling. egg-and-dart above, dentils below, a thin run of architrave underneath; six grammars of moulding pretending to be one decision.

spiders prefer the inner angle of the dentils, where the flies assemble after dusk. the painter who did the upper coats stood on a ladder that smelled of pine; the smell lingered in the room for a week. no one has touched the cornice since.

field-note · lie on your back on the rug. trace the profile with one finger held against the ceiling. the moulding remembers the trace.

below it: the picture rail; below that, the dado; and lower still the skirting meets the floor.