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1. Case Definition
Contact is any moment
a boundary stops being a line
and becomes a temperature.
02
Not only skin.
Also: tongue to name,
knife to stem,
text to screen,
memory to the part of you
that still thinks “call” means reach.
2. Index Event
Yesterday I called it desire,
as if that word were sterile,
as if saying broccoli
keeps the blade
from being a blade.
3. Exposure Window
Begin counting from the first joke
that landed like a hand.
Include all incidental brushes:
laughter,
the shared spoon,
the sentence that broke mid—
way and let the next line
touch what it wasn’t supposed to.
4. Vectors
Hands are obvious.
Mouths are arrogant.
But so is classification—
the neat label
that makes a body
feel holdable.
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A list can spread like yeast.
A rule can spread like heat.
A “should” can spread like mold
in the soft part
you keep calling heart
because it sounds less like meat.
5. Symptoms
— sudden tenderness toward refuse
— obsessive inventory of bruises
— cravings for what cannot feed you
— the urge to braise the whole thing
until it becomes explainable
6. False Negatives
Do not trust composure.
Do not trust silence.
Do not record “no complaint”
as consent.
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Stillness is not a yes.
Stillness is sometimes shock
wearing its best manners.
7. Prophylaxis
Penicillin, if available.
Apology, if freshly made.
Soap, if you believe in soap.
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None of these prevent
the original condition:
to be near
is to alter.
8. Isolation Guidance
Separate the specimen
from the story about it.
This will not work,
but perform it anyway—
like putting cling wrap
over a bowl
that is already fermenting.
9. On Transmission
The trouble with contact
is it looks like meaning.
It looks like proof.
It looks like a future
behaving.
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But it’s mostly chemistry:
salt finding water,
heat finding fat,
your name finding my mouth
and refusing to dissolve.
10. Reporting
If asked where you got it,
do not say: from love.
Love is not a location.
Love is a method.
Love is a soft protocol
everyone violates
while insisting
they are following instructions.
11. Revision Notice
Prior assumptions from the pasture
are hereby suspended.
Compliance is not permission.
A lowered head is not agreement.
A quiet body is not a green light.
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We will treat uncertainty
as a living thing—
handle gently,
with gloves that still let you feel
how much you want
to touch.
12. Disposition
Proceed to the next document
with clean hands
or don’t.
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Either way,
this section begins
after the cut:
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after desire
has already made contact
with language
and language, obedient idiot,
has started to spread.