Punctuation Temptation
©January 13th, 2018
By Vijaya Sundaram
The round chocolate sits before me,
A plump punctuation mark.
I could call it a full stop, a period,
But, to me, it’s more a comma,
An invitation to continue.
I could resist.
Indeed, I do – almost always – for
I lack that deadly downfall of people:
The chocolate-craving gene.
And I am smug about it.
Today, though, I wish to have one more.
Not to cure the blues, exactly.
Perhaps, to kick the weariness
That has set in, the drag
That pulls at my feel, that suck
My volition into a sea of waiting.
I reach for the rich, round full stop,
And let the dark, dark taste of it
Suffuse my senses, as I bite into it.
The velvet sweetness slides
Down my throat, and I close my eyes.
Somewhere, an exclamation forms.
I close the box of chocolates,
And put it away in a semi-colon
Gesture of semi-completion.
(The blues don’t go away, not exactly,
But they are in abeyance.
They pull back, and let me pass.)
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