"To a Virgule" by Yoni Hammer-Kossoy, Frequent Contributor & Poet of the Week

To a Virgule

Yoni Hammer-Kossoy

Some people say

you're just a scribal leftover

with an overblown name,

an ambiguous slash

on the keyboard's margins

prone to either/or poses.

A scratch comma to the core,

I've never heard you shout

in full-throated exclamation, 

or seen you enjoy the satisfaction 

of a full stop. You are singularly

awkward, but to dismiss you 

with a sneer feels

like the graver crime.

Is that not a flock of virgules

too distant to know 

if their wingbeats

are syncopated or synchronized?

Is there anything more beautiful 

than a plum tree's blooming virgules 

after a stormy night?

Poet’s Notes:  This poem started out as something of a mock writing prompt: what would it be like to write about a punctuation mark? Apart from a lot of interesting background research about typography, it grew into a meditation on the beauty of ambiguity, which is certainly not where I thought I was going when I started.