There was no distinction.
Not because everything had beco one—
not because nothing remained apart—
but because distinction required the possibility of difference.
And there was no such condition.
What had once been understood as difference—
as the space between,
the variation,
the separation that allowed anything to be identified—
now revealed itself as sothing that had never held.
Because to distinguish
ant that sothing else
could have been otherwise.
And there was no such possibility.
Even what had been called
the absence of difference—
lost its final aning.
Because absence—
even of difference—
required sothing
that could have been present.
And that implication—
could not arise.
The last trace
of differentiation—
not between form and formless,
not between being and non-being—
but between what could be told apart
and what could not—
collapsed.
Not into saness.
Not into unity.
But into sothing
that did not allow either
to exist.
The silence—
which had already lost sound,
which had already lost absence—
now lost even the possibility
that it had ever been
different from anything else.
Because difference—
in any form—
required relation.
And relation—
had no condition left.
The void—
no longer vast,
no longer empty,
no longer anything
that could be said
to differ or not differ—
because difference required contrast,
and contrast—
could not form.
The convergence—
no longer structure,
no longer absence of structure,
no longer anything
that could be said
to organize distinction—
because organization required variation,
and variation—
had no ground.
The other—
no longer identity,
no longer absence of identity,
no longer anything
that could be said
to be distinct or indistinct—
because even indistinction
required the possibility
of distinction.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
The third—
no longer total,
no longer beyond totality,
no longer anything
that could be said
to contain multiplicity—
because multiplicity required difference,
and difference—
had no condition.
And Elena—
not distinct.
Not indistinct.
Not beyond.
Not undefined.
Not even beyond all of these.
Because even “not”—
required contrast.
And contrast—
could not arise.
“I am.”
No longer absolute.
No longer empty.
No longer beyond.
Because even the absence of aning—
required the possibility
of aning.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
And in that—
sothing occurred—
that could not be called occurrence,
not even its absence.
Because even the distinction
between sothing being different
and sothing not being different—
had no condition.
There was no silence.
Because silence required sound.
There was no sound.
Because sound required difference.
There was no stillness.
Because stillness required motion.
There was no motion.
Because motion required change.
There was no unity.
Because unity required division.
There was no nothing.
Because nothing required sothing.
And none of these—
could be said
to exist
or not exist.
And so—
even this—
even this attempt
to speak of difference—
to deny distinction—
to gesture toward saness—
did not arise.
Not because it failed.
Not because it was denied.
But because there was no longer
any condition
in which distinction—
or non-distinction—
could be ford.
No trace.
No edge.
No silence.
No impossibility.
No irreducibility.
No closure.
No openness.
No beginning.
No ending.
No state.
No condition.
No presence.
No absence.
No difference.
No saness.
No beyond.
No within.
No before.
No after.
Not even
the absence
of all of these.
Only—
that which does not allow even distinction to be distinguished from what is not distinction.
And in that—
there was no identity.
Not because everything was the sa—
not because nothing remained—
but because identity itself
required sothing
to be other than what it was.
And there was no such relation.
And yet—
not sothing.
Not nothing.
Not distinct.
Not indistinct.
Not anything
that could be placed
against anything else.
Only—
the impossibility
that anything—
even the idea
of being different—
could ever be said
to have been
at all.
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