The full stop and the comma
Had an argument.
The full stop said, “It’s over! ”
But the comma would not relent.
The semi-colon joined in
And tried to say his piece,
There was just a longer pause,
But the battle would not cease.
The question mark raised a doubt,
The exclamation point
Stood up and shouted, ‘Please shut up! ’
The brackets also joined
The fray with hyphen and dash,
When along came quotation marks,
With oblique (or forward slash) ,
And what do you think happened that day?
There was a terrible clash!
No punctuation mark survived
On that bizarre poetry site.
Grammarians and those who parse
(Skilled writers) had a fright.
But the sentences and clauses
Couldn’t care more or less,
They went on in their pickled way
In stream-of-consciousness.
this is quite brilliant Tan. Bet James Joyce would have loved it! Especially the last line. I certainly did! Both ingenious and very funny too! Make it a favourite.
Bizarre! What a marvellous speculation it is! Brilliant depiction about Punctuation Marks that appears as human actors. Thrilling and stunning one. Thanks for sharing. ....10
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Hi Tan, That poem is fantastic and, as a humorous poem, it is worth publishing in any magazine in existence. I am fighting Cancer and I cannot read as I would like but, reading your poems raise my appreciation for life. I shall read more of yours and comment later. Regards, Lynn Thank you