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ash davida jane

WIMPs
(weakly interacting massive particles)


I don’t want to wait until we’re both fully formed
to hold your hand
I want to hold your ghost hand
with my ghost hand

they’ll pass through each other with no resistance
as we all know ghosts do
but what about that moment
where they’re in the exact same point of time and space

my ghost particles and your ghost particles
vibrating passionately around each other
like dark matter around everything else

doesn’t that turn you on

I keep putting myself so far out there
people have to travel for days to get to me
but you seem like
you could be an intrepid traveller
I can’t promise I’m worth it
but it’s all about the journey baby

and besides
I’ve made a fool of myself again
I’ve gone and stood in front of everybody
and shouted into a microphone
how much I like you

in this city


in this city nobody has a car
so you have to key their bike

you have to walk down the street past
all the people you’ve been in and out of love with
and all the people they’ve been in and out of love with
and so on

and they all look at you and know that
someone they’ve been in and out of love with
has been in and out of love with you
or still is in love
or out of love
which is different to nothing at all

until one day you run out of people
and circle back around to the beginning

when I go through the sequence again
I might take a break when I get to you
I’m sure you understand

maybe one day I’ll walk into a room
and won’t expect to see you
not that you’ll be there
I just won’t expect you anymore

maybe the you of this poem isn’t you at all
it’s actually you
or you


Ash Davida Jane is a poet and editor. Her second book, How to Live With Mammals (Te Herenga Waka University Press), was published in 2021 and won second place in the Laurel Prize. She lives and works in Pōneke.