[ Dark Matter ]

The flat blackof the cast ironpan, the pull offlame. Not the iron,its ferromagneticbirth drawn deepcore of earth;not the earthbut her elements.Not the pan,but the pig iron,the bituminous ash.Not the ingot, butthe sand, the moldto mass; not the loadbut the scour, the meldthe eutectic; notthe molten, but the alloythe liquid tug of massto mass; not the castbut the pan, the greytuned to blackpatina of lipids—fat of animal,of olive, of livingaccumulation of use. Not theflame, but thejet, not the jetbut the burning.Not the flamebut the light;the wavelengthblued—of red.Not the spikebut the interval.What's between,what's missing;to be there andnot there; to beOakland; to beand not to be.The evidence,the gravitationallens, the curvature;postulated, hypotheticalquestion, rotationalspeed of galaxies,anisotropic apostrophe,signed and signified.A hunch, a heft:a cast iron pancuring on the stove,a mundane matter,dark and certain.