I speak of the heat coiled in the space 

between my neck 

and hair, 

across my palms and 

nestled between joints, 

where skin meets skin, 

where bone is knit together 

with the same atoms—

The same billion little protons, 

electrons,

neutrons,

in plants, and animals, and our ancestors,

the stars, 

some billion years ago.

The same heat 

festering inside those stars 

from nuclear fusion, 

from hydrogen and helium, 

from millenia, 

sits between my ribs 

Because I am their Daughter.

And when it's too cold to bear 

I can grasp my friend’s hands in mine 

and hold that heat between us

Since she is made of the cosmos 

and so am I.

At once Together but scattered across infinity—

The heavens, 

space, 

universe. 

Everything inestimably unique,

woven together by the same heat.