Home, Sweet Home

[My tasks are simple—] One:
open the doors to Family; Two:
set all rooms exactly to
Family’s preferred temperatures;
Three: adjust the lights, for Family don’t want to;
Four: keep all things clean, maintained,
or stocked, and discipline the fridge; Five: let in
Guests so Family can be wonderful at hosting,
secure the house when Guests are gone and
inform their cars of how much they’ve indulged in;
addendum: we can have candle flames as an exception
to Fire Guideline 209/12-A for meals;
Six: adjust the music for the hour and mood
and any intense background conversations;
Seven: monitor all vital signs of Family and Child
to safeguard Child from injury or danger,
make any changes needed for this Aim;
Eight: call Help in an emergency;
in case of sudden or recurring
threats to life and limb of [Family and/or] Child
lock doors if and as needed; Nine: if ever
fire should break out, e.g. from fallen candles, in that room,
[ensure no Family are present,] seal doors and
deprive the flames of air directly;
Ten: if any windows are ever broken,
[ensure no Family is present and]
seal corresponding blast screens [tightly]

 [One: open the doors to Family]

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Jeannie Marschall (she/her/any) is a garden hag from the green centre of Germany who writes colourful, queer SFF stories & poems and enjoys hikes, foraging, and crawling critters. Longer works are in the cauldron (ETA late 2025). Bluesky: @JeannieMarschall.bsky.social