Again and Again| Lauren Suchenski

Again and again
I hold my hands to the light
to the soft and tender resonance
of what filters in and out
of the grammar of the internet
the soft punctuation of your care
the elegant, oblong sentence
of the ones and zeroes you give me
that lace themselves together
to form the unmistakable shape;
a dandelion crown of tapped words
and tangled images, the pixelated
pieces of your heart that weave like
a delicate puzzle, or a
folded map, carefully creased
with an x marks the spot
just in the corner – in the blue of the ocean
and if I can build a boat
small enough to trace from the land mass
on the paper we hold ourselves bound to
to the lighthouse offshore;
I think when I find you
I’ll recognize you

Lauren Suchenski has a difficult relationship with punctuation. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and four times for The Best of the Net. Her chapbook “Full of Ears and Eyes Am I” (2017) is available from Finishing Line Press, and a full-length collection “All You Can Measure” as well as a chapbook “All Atmosphere” (Selcouth Station 2022) are forthcoming. You can find more of her writing on Instagram @lauren_suchenski or on Twitter @laurensuchenski.