— ph · stair

03:42 · landing between first and second

footsteps on the stair

a slow, considered descent — the third tread always — then a pause as if to look out of the half-window, then the rest. no one arrives at the bottom. no one was at the top.

this is not the house objecting to its temperature. the house objects elsewhere, and at other hours. this is the stair simply being used.

stairs · footstep · the corridor · the breath · four a.m.

— counted seven treads tonight. there are nine.

atlas · return