Kirsten Kaschock

COMMA AS: NIGHTINGALE, FLO

Comma was misunderstood

                                                      whom her mother called
                                                      indecisive
                                                      and a whore

                    her hesitation
                    impressive
                    in lieu of others’
                    thoughtless
                    prosaic
                    stampede

                    braver—cowardice that crossed the field while considering all the while charting

                                                       the skies shot through with
                                                       direction/
                                                       whistling as she walked

                    so Comma
                    stuttered
                    also she
                    possessed
                    a lovely tail
                    good head

                    she hung in the corporeal balance like shrapnel a more fragile position she had

                                                       such heart measuring out
                                                       lilt
                                                       in the midst of life’s

                    sentences—
                    words were
                    contextual
                    captives/syn-
                    tactical targets
                    needing release

                    Comma a tender a lover of those caged wounded she drifted through their nights/tents

                                                       /internments offering soft kinds
                                                       of solace
                                                       demurring , then allowing

                    forward
                    motion
                    to those
                    trapped
                    between
                    points :

                    representations of non-dimensional space — prisons one dimension short of bars

 

 

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I believe punctuation has personality: the colon is a friend.