PORTLAND, Maine / The Elder Storytelling Place / Time Goes By / May 2, 2011
On the Semicolon
By Jeanne Waite Follett
Muskeg Manor
Alaska
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;
Behold the mighty semicolon,
Undaunted, audacious hieroglyphic symbol,
Thy name implies a power halved-
Neither period stop nor comma pause,
But something in between
And rarely understood.
Power halved?
Ah, thy power to strike fear in the heart
of one who dared employ thee.
Ranked first amongst thy kindred marks.
Generations feared thee;
generations avoided thee.
Behold the mighty semicolon!
Once upon the slippery slope,
falling inexorably into dis-use,
Rather than mis-use.
Fear not, oh semicolon.
Now is thy time upon the stage.
Thou will not disappear into obscurity,
But live in perpetuity
As a sly and winking emoticon.
; > )
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© 2011 Ronni Bennett.
