Hephaestus Running

Why do some people hate the semicolon
in poetry?  The dour and plain period keeps
less intimate friends and the comma cheats
on its lovers, splicing the weak and cold in
its heart, while the dash—oh! embolden
the dash—throws itself prostrate, neat
like a pilgrim before a shrine, weeping
for the accents and umlauts that have fallen
away.  Not so, the semicolon: it is a torch aloft
like that of an Olympian; the flame
connects sentences through that peril-fraught
relay of language to triumph and claim
the prize of orotund distinction, not
to stand aside, impotent, in ugly shame.

March, 2004

Divorce Papers

She clicks
tears from her eyes,
printing

them on her copies.
She collates
bank statement
to receipt,

attempting
to rebind
him; but the staple
is too short.

October, 2003