the picture rail

a thin oak strip set a foot below the ceiling, from which the house's pictures hang on brass hooks. it will not let you put a nail in the plaster; it asks, instead, for a hook and a length of wire.

two paintings live on it presently — a fading garden in oils and a small print of a road in winter. one stays straight; one drifts left every fortnight. straightening the print is one of the small tasks of the custodian of the room.

field-note · sight along the rail with your cheek to the wall. the rail is true; the room is not. the rail tells.

it sits below the cornice, parallel to the dado, and is mirrored by the skirting at the floor.