parlour · main door · mortice · escutcheon
a brass escutcheon, oval, worn brightest where every key has touched it on entry. behind it: a tongue of metal and the small dark of a lock. someone has lit a candle in the room beyond; you can see the wick burning sideways.
it is the building's smallest theatre. who has knelt to look through it: the child; the visitor who arrived too early; the custodian when no key was at hand. the view costs a knee on the parquet.
field-note · cover it with a finger. the building does not notice. uncover it. the building notices itself again.
pair to the hinge; cousin to the brass plate.