The poem moves through a single week, from Friday to Sunday, and from suffering to tenderness. It begins with a body in pain that is "ready for prayer," as if hurt makes a person open and humble. Then the speaker invites "her" to dinner, a small, ordinary gesture that feels like an answer to that ache. Who she is isn't spelled out, but the poem suggests someone close, since the two of them share a bed.
The third stanza is the most surprising. The couple will "invent a better theory of music" with their bed, which hints at intimacy as something creative and playful, almost like making a song together. The mood is quiet, warm, and a little secretive. The last lines compare the summer to "a secret told to my pen," so the season feels brief and private, something the speaker can only half hold on to by writing it down. The speaker seems grateful, tender, and aware that this happiness is fleeting.