SEMICOLON

Greeting Hairballers,

I’m still seething.  The election is days away and no matter how often I gaze in the crystal ball, I can’t get an answer.  Vote, I beg of you, vote.

Taking on punctuation this week.  My first week at a writer’s group, the resident bully grabbed my manuscript draft and slashed away with her red pen, while lecturing me on the archaic use of the semicolon.  There will be a Gazette on that.  For now, I defend my wounded semiCs.

Perhaps the semicolon is a metaphor for this election season—more to come, more to come…

      

SEMICOLON©

         FMHorner

oft maligned and thought taboo

I hang in limbo

the comma lists and separates

or serves as parenthetical at best

and the dash, a drumroll,

shouts to make a point

while periods bring it to a halt—

the thought is done—the end

but I, the comma

with the floating dot above my head

am the point of punctuation

most misunderstood

for when you see me, you know,

there is more to surface

I give pause and add suspense,

the words just keep on coming

so bring me back, start a trend

and infuse your prose with me

together we’ll write wondrous tales

with sentences long and textured

you’ll be grateful when your work has sold

and is rated number one

tho you won’t find me on the check

for the payment that you’ve earned

;