LOAD-BEARING WALL
For use in domestic architecture, Tuesday-class structures.
A wall that carries the weight of floors above it
down through the foundation to the earth.
Not to be confused with: partition walls,
which divide rooms but support nothing.
In vernacular usage, any conversation
held before 8 a.m. that determines
the shape of everything after.
Also: the phone call you haven't made.
Also: the painter whose brush
finishes what the architect only drew.
Note: removal requires temporary shoring
or the entire day collapses
into its own basement.
See also: flying buttress, keystone,
the 16-degree night that holds
a building up by pressing against it.