madeleine gallagher
jinx
here’s a secret:
lean in close and i’ll learn things about you.
i’ll do scary shit like say the same word
at the same time as you and i’ll text you
right after you were thinking about me.
i’ll consider getting a snack and then
you’ll ask me for a bite because you heard
the wrapper rustling from the other room,
except i hadn’t even touched it yet,
i was only thinking about it in
my own quiet head. somehow you heard it too.
what i do know is that i like the words you use.
i use them even when you’re not around.
i know you like chocolate in the evening
and i always answer the phone when you call.
i know so many things about you that
they must have nowhere else to go but out
into the universe, where they multiply
and magnify until the stars themselves
seem sparse. i hope this does not frighten you.
i only mean that you are dear to me.
it’s true, i think of you often.
Madeleine Gallagher is a librarian living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, but is originally from Tāmaki Makaurau. She got called a bookworm at age seven and was gravely insulted until she realised it did not refer to any sort of wormishness. She quite likes books to this day.