About Certainty

by Wendy Videlock

So much can be learned
from the open curve
of the question mark,
from the comma’s calm,

from the hard G,
and the soft w,
from the kindred link
of the q and the u,

and yet,

in this state,
a breath away
from the fervent curve,
from the i and the u

is the certain fear
of a kind of dark:
the abrupt chagrin,
the erasure mark.

previously published in The Eleventh Muse