Gustave Flaubert paid so much attention to punctuation that
His commas and periods developed free will.
Those not trapped in books when he died
Nor in his interminable letters fled through loose-shuttered windows
And are still at large. They live cautiously, taking small jobs;
Never staying long. For a few weeks one of my poems
Enjoyed a small degree of perfection, hosting a comma
Flaubert had put in and removed no fewer than three times
In a near-final draft of Bouvard and Pécuchet
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