Rarely do things end

with a bang

Usually they begin with a lie

in bed wondering what

could have been if

the period had not aligned

with the sun and the moon

in ellipsis

after the many long dashes

in and dashes out then several

more dashes in and out

which bridged the gap

of her moist parenthesis

with his dramatic comma

the question remained

asterisked to a footnote

in the margins of their thought

wallowed and mired in

the damp sheets of their query

*

Jeffrey Turner grew up in Plymouth, MA. He received his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Dickinson College. He is a first year MFA student in fiction at Old Dominion University. His poem “Punctual” received an Honorable Mention in Old Dominion University’s 2011 College Poetry Prize contest, Graduate division.