WHAT IF DARK MATTER

[“…what if dark matter is like space between people…” Tracy K Smith Life on Mars]

What if dark matter is like the space between people

intentions looking for a surface of pores to land

a desire melting fast like an ice cube liberated

spinning on the floor beneath you me or another

so soft unwritten disappearing in and out

of focus at least electricity strikes a light

there’s a reaction burning up like love or pain

these circles of life overlap each other I can’t feel

alone anymore my loss is less than shrinking thought

those things I once thought go on without me it’s not

so dark after all our perfect planets collide

or otherwise disrupt each other’s atmospheres

meanwhile another week passes unnoticed

it’s disconcerting is it exodus or migration

these runaway thoughts as if this were nothing

out of the ordinary as if we actually existed

but we died a minute ago everything rolled

tumbled in the gyres we’ll never know

the half of it I’m falling asleep fingertips

heavy on the keyboard I swear

yesterday you came alive for a moment