Self-Portrait as Punctuation

Margaret Rozga

I am a colon: sometimes

shuffling an explanation

your way; sometimes

a drum major heading

a list. Now often cast

aside: a dash subbing

for me; the upstart

comma inserted after

business greetings as if

the letter were friendly.

I’m open for new ideas:

to save dignity; to burn

energy; to find my way

into hearts, minds,

sentences, even poems.

Margaret Rozga’s fifth book is Holding My Selves Together: New and Selected Poems (Cornerstone Press, 2021). As 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Rozga co-edited the anthology Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems (Art Night Books, 2020) and the chapbook anthology On the Front Lines / Behind the Lines (pitymilkpress, 2021). Twitter: WIPoet@RozgaMargaret