“The Metamorphosis of Punctuation Marks” by Diana Manole
from the 2018 Poem in Your Pocket Day booklet
They spell themselves out and I pretend I understand
comma
stuffed plump commas slither on our skin
seeking the best place to come
to a full stopsemicolon
translucent jade wings ingrained
in bodies of blackness
future flutters still faulted by default
the course of life is not the course of writing
unlessdot dot dot
commas square the circle
like Lilliputian miracle handssemicolon
if I were to slice them open
at the right time
acid ink would ooze out
dissolving any scab in its waysemicolon
eagerness
eagerness to lose themselves
into the context
vital mostly when absent
no better than a long-lost lover
an afterthoughtsemicolon
they have risen indeed
from between the words
like moths shooting for the light
with no memory of the caterpillars
having
to cannibalize themselves
for the sake of
flyingperiod