Scalding

Walking past the marker on Superior Street

The mercury is ascending past the safety of the glass

I am vibrating at the frequency of a coming storm

Like the Great Fire of 1871

Everything I touch becomes a scorched artifact (He is becoming ash)

My pulse is a frantic metronome set to prestissimo

While you are the immovable stones of the North Pier

The atmospheric pressure is thinning my resolve

I am reaching the threshold where liquid becomes a ghost

212° Fahrenheit

At sea level, this is where the change begins

100 units on the Celsius scale

The exact moment the surface starts to rupture

I am bubbling over the edges of my own skin (Breaking the surface)

It is not a fever, it is a transformation

Devotion at a rolling, violent boil

If we stood at the summit of Mount Mitchell

The water would break at a lower number

But our love is heavy, rooted in the basin

46.7° North latitude

Where the air is thick-

212

The boiling point of a man in love

The specific gravity of a soul unmoored

In the city of Duluth, under a copper moon

I am turning into vapor

Just to be the air you inhale (Just to be the air)

100°

Exactly

The transformation is complete