They say Frost fought with his editor
over a comma—
for what could mythic Oxford know
of February in Vermont?

I say it’s good
he insisted, but only because
his crime of punctuation tugs at the harp strings
of my imagination and suddenly
I am peering into that sublime and silent wood,
wondering at all the beauty
in what I cannot see.

That’s the curious thing about commas:
intention makes all the difference.
The question it frames in elementary grammar
is how to be honest
and published.

A.M. Scott

Williston Park