from Beginnings –
 
 
Dark Matter

     Invisible matter – dark matter – is generally held to explain
     the gravity that holds the galaxies together.
 
 
That Volvo must be doing 70, I said
as we drove home from the museum. Words
as bridges, the road smooth as thought, sun low,
its brightness undone. Not so much traffic now.
Words as cushions. The engine’s so quiet, you said.
 
It was a kind of peace.
What did you like best today? I asked you. –
Well, the little statue, of course…
oh look at that, I knew that car would pull out.
My silent agreement merged with the quiet.
 
Long as memory it seemed, the road:
it could have gone on forever, knowing nothing
of the souls it carried.
An Italian thinks he’s made
dark matter in his laboratory, I said.
 
Clarity of being, bright surfaces
plain to see. Nothing to explain, except
the comfort of the banality of breath, except the ease
of words and silence
smooth as our speed,
 
except the way
two beings were held together
and hid one life, just as in the galaxies
what cannot be seen
holds together the luminous stars.
 

Daphne Gloag

first published in Ambit;
published in collection A Compression of Distances, 2011, Cinnamon Press,
ISBN 978-1-905614-79-0