Who hasn’t done this thing:
hooked up an equilibrium to counter-
balance precariousness, an instability?
Who hasn’t said this is what it is
or this is what we must acclimate to?
Find symmetry, proportion like a body
seeking homeostasis; and nothing
says equilibrio like a semicolon;
nothing so tenderly stitches
two (or more) uncomfortably unequal parts:
kissing cousins, roomies, not-the-sames,
such an inobtrusive mark to say
this is how we relate similar but not-equal things.
The colon is much more declarative,
confident in its equation; its one side
perfectly balanced to the other.
Who am I: I am me.
I have a friend who had a list,
qualities he wanted in a lover,
one item which was an understanding
of the proper use of a semicolon;
this possibly explains the mess of things
it all became: these kinds of lists
never equal the thing you think they should.
Colons are tricky that way:
the calculations are pretty strict.
But whole galaxies can be hinged
on the axis of a colon:
a veritable bucket full of stuff:
light poles, coconuts, sidewalks, jujubes.
Strong as steel, a colon,
as in
what will become of us: