Punctuate

A poem
by Chris Hibbard

Punctuate

With punctuation,
I can not shut you up
with a period
Or at least lower your voice
by stripping exclamation points
or delicately pause
all of this
with a comma
I can not gather your ways
neatly into parentheses
or organize your explanations
into lists with bullet points
or simply omit what I don’t need
with an ellipsis
or specify the reason
for all your delirious talk
behind a colon
or place quotes around everything
that you’ve heard from someone else
I can not even
place a question mark
on my forehead
as I listen
Even using hyphenation
in my punctuation
I can not shut you up

~ by chris hibbard on December 1, 2008.