Musing On My Life

I used to be a period,
laboring to end a thought,
closing the door on each idea.

But now I’m a question mark,
opening up the world to wondering,
always asking “why”,
and “what’s your thinking”,
and “is there a heuristic for this phenomenology”?

I used to be an ellipsis,
inviting thinking that grows
like ivy, up walls, over sidewalks,
filling in the spaces in our imagination.

But now I’m an exclamation point,
excited by the simplest new thoughts,
easily entertained.

I used to be a quotation mark,
listening in on private conversations,
broadcasting to the world,
the fly on the wall,
the voyeur, viewing the world from his own private box.

But now I’m a parentheses,
exploring the thinking beneath the thinking,
stretching the envelope of cognition,
drilling beneath the surface of ideas,
mining the nuggets hiding in the crevasses of thought.

I used to be a colon,
reading through the scroll of my big ideas,
so proud and self consumed,
in control,
determining the fate of everything that followed.

Now I’m a comma,
whispering, “wait a minute, there’s more here. . .”