Poetry Break

Enough with this time-travel nonsense.  For today, at least.

Backstory:

A few years ago, I was introduced to the lovely mark of punctuation known as the semicolon.  Essentially, it acts as a period between two sentences that are related; it's simply the best.  After reading a paper where every other sentence contained a semicolon, my teacher called me out for my excessive behavior.  She told me, "you need to start seeing other punctuation." 

...and so begins our story...

An Apology

When I first saw you,

I never realized how much I would grow

to love you.

There you sat,

right next to the double-period

that made up the eyes of a smiley face.

For years, you were there,

denied your rightful position on the page

by the shift key.

I’m sorry;

I thought you were strange,

useless, and undeserving

of that lofty position

to the right of the ‘L’.

For years, I have written sentences that

logically connect with each other;

I used a period, denying you your rightful place.

In Elementary and Middle School, I admit it,

my feelings were mixed;

you got in the way of my smiley face;

you looked strange.

Even before I saw you for who you were,

you kept winking back in the face of my impudence.

In High School, my eyes were opened;

I thank my English teacher daily

(whether she knows it or not)

for introducing the two of us.

I saw you, despite my former prejudice;

you were, and are, beautiful.

Ours is a forbidden love;

the laws of grammar forbid exclusivity.

For both of our sakes, and our futures,

I have started seeing other punctuation.

Despite these circumstances,

there was never so magnificent a love

as the love I harbored, and still harbor, for you;

though other men might find joy in other marks,

none shall match my joy in knowing you.