Important Apostrophe and a Tenant who is a Mysterious Lady

It should have said St John’s - with that apostrophe!
So many omit the little mark.
How could they, when its presence or absence
gives us one meaning or the other?

A tenant within these apartments
who is a mysterious lady,
placed the absent apostrophe on that poster,
kept this nighttime act a secret, and crept away.

St John was a saint we remember,
on the twenty-fourth of June:
it’s St John’s Day.
And this little mark marks that.

Without this modest mark, this little apostrophe,
we have a plural, not a possessive.
So how many Johns were there?

Or are these apartments named
after just the one John, as we’re told -
the one that has that little apostrophe?

Often do I wonder who
the mysterious tenant is, the one
who posts missing apostrophes.


(3 Sep 2024)
Copyright © | Year Posted 2024

Poem

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