Life Near 310 Kelvin

Air so still stars barely twinkle, still busy inside.
Just step out into the dark yard and the air starts
eagerly stripping momentum from the skin.

Her cheek so chilled it made cool fingers hot -- heat
needs these directions to go, some difference to erase.

Iron straight from the forge, fierce with tiny agitation,
donates freely the deep KE it has just received.

Hot's whatever gives you heat and cold is how heat goes.
Either way, something has happened and you know it.
She arrived. She departed. Sunlight has finally
reached the tables on the eastern side of the street.

Heat falls out of the intervals between breadcrumbs.
No trail home. Birds have devoured every morsel.

Heat, the ratchet keeping time from slipping back.

...
KE is Kinetic Energy.
Body temperature is 310 Kelvin.
The Kelvin scale starts at absolute zero and uses non-negative numbers. Its degrees are the same size as Celsius degrees, which were called Centigrade when I was a kid.
...

Copyright 1998 by Greg Keith