[Stephen Colley]

Of course, the semicolon is but one part of punctuation's unholy trinity (colon, semicolon, comma), so here's a thought -- written many years ago (yes, what about dashes?) -- on the larger subject...


Colonitis
(for Ogden Nash)

When rendered commatose by stress, the anxious writer’s colon does only a half-asked job
and degenerates into a semicolon; intermittent in its punctuation;
resulting in fluctuation of the Muse’s functuation;

Which is all highly irregular; but not nearly as bad as a semicolon succumbing to its lower nature
and lapsing into a comma, hardly stemming the flow of idea,
resulting naturally in verbal diarrhea,

Which, however commacle, is not nearly as bad as a semi-colon losing its better half
and sinking into a barren period. Stopping all inspiration.
Resulting periodically in mental constipation.