A sentence with a semicolon is a sentence
an author could have finished but chose not to. A thought that could have ended
but was left unfinished. Like a black-and-white painting that needed color but
never got any. Like the artist couldn’t decide what colors to use from his grand
pallet but if he knows one thing it’s that his painting isn’t complete. It can’t
end there.
A
sentence with a semicolon is a giant bowl of soup. It’s Mom’s homemade chicken
noodle with all its carrots and bits of celery, all its chicken chunks and
noodles. Yet still, after every spoonful, the practiced chef knows for certain
that something is missing—a pinch of salt, perhaps, a sprinkle of pepper
forgotten from the recipe.
A
sentence with a semicolon is a girl wondering why her sentence isn’t over yet.
It’s a girl wondering why the author would decide to continue a paragraph that doesn’t
make any sense. Why would someone go through choosing such a complicated
punctuation mark to continue a thought that is already finished? Why even
bother? It’s a girl who thinks her sentence is better off a short, simple one,
because even though a sentence with a thousand words and five hundred
semicolons can be a beautiful one, a short one with a simple period at the end
causes much less trouble. She doesn’t understand that the semicolon itself is
an outcast—not a comma, not a period, but an awkward in between not yet
acquainted with the common pen. She doesn’t understand that even though it’s
not one or the other—a period or a comma—it can still be used. It can still
find a place among the words; it can still weave itself onto a page and be
accepted as a part of a beautiful sentence.
Author's Note: I wrote this because of what a girl said to me once on semicolon day, 4.16.13, which is a day where all those who are depressed, hurting themselves, lost a loved one, etc... draw a semicolon on their wrist. A semicolon represents a sentence the author could have finished but chose not to. You are the author and the sentence is your life.
~N
~N
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