On the verge

Of course, they must have waited for these La Niña rains to put out their ailing melamine cupboards on the verge. So they might soften.

Even the less used end of the table

During the rains -- when we were still calling it La Niña even though everyone had said that La Niña had already finished -- when the mould grew high on the rabbit's droppings and even the less used end of the table had a milky film -- our neighbours were leaving the shells of their melamine chipboard cupboard components out on the verge (none of them actually all of the cupboard, it always seemed: just the split and rotten parts), like cleaning a mouth.