Punctuation - Thea Gilmore

And the Lord sat down

and crossed his legs

and said Lucy let’s just get this straightened out.

I read it in the small print

somewhere on the 19th page,

and I don’t know what we’re arguing about.

There’s a fundamental flaw

in the way that you do business,

it’s a classic rookie error I suppose

but I am in the detail

and you ask too many questions.

Well I beg to differ,

Lucy said and stirred her coffee,

every pawn is still a player don’t you think?

And let me ask you this,

when it comes to satisfaction

is the middle that much better than the brink?

You see I’ve got this theory

that it’s only punctuation

that separates the list from me to you,

and it’s yet to be established just who is in the detail

but I take you everytime on the overview.

And the Lord was full of wrath

as he looked over his glasses

and said Adam perhaps you should have your say.

And Adam made a sound,

something like an exclamation,

said which of you punks was it made the snakes?

You see I’ve got this theory

that it’s only punctuation

that separates the list from you to me,

and you can have your war of full stops and erotemes

but the real power’s in parentheses.