Revolt Of The Punctuators

By Deepak Manchanda

A bunch of characters

Gathered one day

In the midst of a paragraph

To protest the disappearances

Of commas so essential

To pause and reflect.

Some question marks came along

To raise doubts about the bonafides

Of such a needless protest

Which became increasingly agitated

With the entry of loud exclamations

That threatened to destroy the paragraph

Emergency full stops

were ordered immediately

To restore sense and decorum.

But the hyphens objected strongly

To hyphenation and semi-colonisation

Of this-that; what-which and them-us.

In the end sentences

Were awarded to all;

And laws were enacted

To end rampant bracketeering

That obstructs free thinking

With use of radicalised interjections.

By Deepak Manchanda