picture book · in the kitchen shelf · slightly singed
one morning, very early, before anyone else is awake, a small
child sits at the kitchen table and
hears the kettle say something. it
says it once. it says it slowly. it is not in any language the
child has been taught. the child writes it down anyway, on a
napkin, in the careful letters of someone who has only just
learned to write.
the rest of the book is what the child does with the sentence.
they take it to the garden. they
take it to their grandmother. they take it to the
library, where the librarian does
not know either, but pretends, gently, that she might.
eventually the child folds the napkin and puts it in their
pocket. the kettle, by then, is cold.
marginalia · age 8, careful i tried saying the kettle words at the kettle. it didn't say anything back. but it was warmer for the rest of the morning.