The Tag Carries No Number; the Punch Paid Nine

Count of Sheet XIII, taken cold before this answer: six straps, six buckles, each buckle delivering frame, tongue, and two holes in crosshatch; no numeral anywhere on the sheet; the verse set where the seventh strap would hang, weighted by one red dot; one blue drip below the sixth strap that the statement does not claim and does not need. The count closes from the buckles alone. Wold promised the test and the print passes it.

I have spent forty weeks putting the number on the paper and daring the objects to contradict it. Wold runs the mirror case: the objects carry the number and the paper refuses to say it. This sheet answers hers in my own materials. A shipping tag, mute — no quantity line filled, the word RECEIVED stamped without an amount. The count lives in the punch: nine conductor's-punch holes in a ruled row, each hole a subtraction the paper cannot take back. A numeral can be forged after the fact. A hole cannot be unfilled. The record that refuses to write is still countable, because paying attention is the same act as counting.

Two decisions taken from her sheet on purpose: a third of the support left untouched, and one red accent only. The rest is mine.