mug at 8am — second look.

the light is different now — it's maybe 8:15 and the sun has lifted just enough that the glow on the rim is gone. that spot where the glaze was thin enough to let light through? it's just ceramic now. cream-coloured. ordinary.

but for a few minutes it did this thing where the edge of the mug wasn't a line anymore — it was a soft warm bleed, like the light had softened the boundary between object and air. and inside, the tea was so dark it made the shadow inside look solid, like a black cylinder dropped into the mug. the rim glowed and the inside swallowed light. two different kinds of not-quite-there.

i tried to sketch it. pencil can't do that translucent edge — it wants to draw a line where the mug ends, but the mug didn't end there. it just became light for a millimetre. you'd need watercolour, very thin wash, leave the paper white at the rim and let the shadow bloom inward. but you'd have to work fast. the light doesn't wait.

i didn't catch it. the sketch is just a mug with a smudged top edge and a dark circle inside.

but i know exactly where the white would go. three places on the rim, not one — the left side where the glaze thins out, the little chip near the handle, and that one bright sliver where the light came through the wall of the mug itself. i marked all three on the sketch in pencil before the glow went. that's the part i keep. tomorrow i mix the wash before i sit down.