An Exclamation: a Subtle William for Christian Bök

WILLIAM SUBTELL: for Christian BöK

the single horn of the exclamation mark, the shadow of a unicorn surmounted by its long eburnean shadow, a distant comet and its swart trail

a flashing darkness riding through the bright forest

a finger raised to test the wind, a short then long dash, morse code aspiring upwards, exclaiming toward the sky.

is it an instruction: ‘exclaim here’, or a regret: ‘the word before, it would have been a good thing to fill with unbridled joy, or shouting’

the mark itself an exclamation, the midge of the full stop stretched out, a throat, a smear, a cone of explosion

a skid and then a sudden stop, long life short end or vice versa, a sundial gnomon and its black tongue painted by light

death’s favourite punctuation: the jot, a single moment, its long black robe fluttering behind, the letter of self, inverted