Life in Punctuation

by Darlene Graf

There’s the pregnant pause
(             )
of waiting
(parenthesis globing the belly)
of the breaststroke comma
a wave caught in a lap,
there’s the ellipses… 
that hang like garland
expectant pearls
Christmas? Maybe just the slow egg of Easter
I have a question 
mark
that lone earring wended by the wind
of “I don’t know”
--a place of hope—
dashed by
“I wish”
that swoopy declaration
surrounded by black confetti
hung on a star
with its smog face
and chipped points
you brush your lips
against its blue ear and whisper
“I will.”
Period.