Passive Heat

Irradiative but not active,
passive like vision,
like looking her in the eye.
(Frost forming around the edges,
i.e. closer to you)
Day becomes a fiction,
a spectral filibuster until the speech
runs out. This morning.
Passing through the seams
of the clapboards,
odors of sea water, ammonia, rot.
We catch each other’s words,
though they would have us
throw them back.